With RSS, your subscriptions belong to you, in a file you can take to any reader. That file is OPML, and every serious reader can read and write it.
FeedBro imports and exports it on every plan, without asking why you want it.
What OPML is
It's a plain list of the feeds you follow: titles, addresses and any folders you had them in. Export it from one reader, import it into another, and you've moved your reading in a few seconds instead of retyping thirty addresses.
Nearly every reader worth using supports it, which is why leaving an RSS reader has never stung the way leaving a social network does.
Bringing your feeds in
- Export an OPML file from your current reader. It's usually under settings, sometimes called "Export subscriptions".
- Open FeedBro settings and choose Import OPML.
- Pick the file. Your feeds start arriving straight away, and FeedBro begins checking them for new articles.
If you're setting up a new account, onboarding offers the same import, so you can start with your reading already in place instead of an empty list.
Taking them out again
Export is one click on the same settings page, and it downloads a standard OPML file of everything you follow.
It's worth doing now and then even if you're staying. It backs up a list you'd hate to rebuild, and it shows you aren't locked in. A reader that makes export easy has to keep you by being good rather than by being hard to leave.
Once your feeds are in
- Group them into collections (work, news, hobbies) so you can read one context at a time.
- Set a rule for anything you'd hate to miss, and it'll email or notify you when a match appears.
- Let the truncated ones fill themselves in: when a feed sends two sentences, FeedBro fetches the article.
The Free plan covers fifty feeds and ten collections. Plenty of OPML files are longer than that after years of collecting, and Coffee Club removes the limits.
Questions
Will importing keep my folders?
The file carries your structure, and your feeds come across with it so you can organise them into collections in FeedBro.
Can I import more than once?
Yes, as often as you like. Following a feed you already follow doesn't duplicate it.
Is export available on the Free plan?
Yes. Import and export are both free, on every plan.
Moving in
Export from wherever your feeds live now, import the file into FeedBro and see how the same subscriptions read here. If you want to leave again, the export button is on the same page as the import one.
