RSS and Atom are solved, well-documented formats — reading feeds from sites that already publish one is genuinely a weekend build. What's not solved: generating a clean feed for a site that never had one, and reliably polling thousands of feeds without falling behind or hammering source servers.
RSS/Atom is a mature, well-documented XML format with existing parsing libraries — reading feeds from sites that already publish one is a bounded, well-solved integration
Folders, read/unread state, and a basic list-plus-article reading UI are ordinary CRUD and front-end work
For personal use across a modest number of subscribed feeds, this is genuinely achievable in a weekend
What you give up building Inoreader yourself
"Web feeds" for sites that never published RSS requires scraping and parsing arbitrary, constantly-changing HTML into a clean feed — an ongoing maintenance problem as sites redesign, not a one-time integration
Reliably polling potentially thousands of feeds across many users, on a schedule, without missing updates or overloading source servers, is real infrastructure most personal RSS readers never need to solve
Active Search — a saved query that becomes its own live feed — needs real search infrastructure once run across enough aggregated feeds and users
What you'd have to build
The parts this build actually needs, each rated on its own — the average is the Vibe Score above.
Landing page
99
CRUD database
95
User login
92
Search
86
Reliable multi-destination data pipeline
30
How to build your own Inoreader
Don't build web-scraping-based "web feeds" or search infrastructure across every subscribed feed — build a real, working RSS reader for sites that already publish RSS or Atom:
1. Add a feed by URL, parsed with an existing library (rss-parser handles RSS and Atom both) — not a hand-rolled XML parser.
2. Organize feeds into folders, and store each item with a read/unread flag.
3. A scheduled job (a cron trigger) that re-polls every subscribed feed on an interval and inserts new items, skipping ones already seen by their feed-provided unique ID.
4. A list view of unread items plus an article view, marking read on open or on scroll past.
That's a real, complete RSS reader for a personal-scale set of subscriptions. Out of scope: generating a feed for a site that never published one, which means scraping and parsing arbitrary HTML that changes its structure over time — an ongoing maintenance problem, not something you solve once — and reliable polling at real scale across thousands of feeds and many users without falling behind or overloading source servers, genuine infrastructure work beyond a personal cron job.
What it actually costs to build
Two real costs, not just "free": the AI agent's own usage, and hosting once it's running. Both are estimated from this app's own effort rating and component list — see the assumptions on the method page.
AI agent — with a subscription (Claude Pro/Max, Cursor, etc.)
$0 marginal
AI agent — pay-per-use API, no subscription
$43–$86 one-time
Hosting, once it's running
$0/mo (free tier)
Domain name, if you want your own
~$12/yr
Inoreader costs $9.99/mo. Even paying per-token with no subscription, and accounting for hosting, this build pays for itself in about 9 months.
Questions
Can I code Inoreader?
Borderline. RSS and Atom are solved, well-documented formats — reading feeds from sites that already publish one is genuinely a weekend build. What's not solved: generating a clean feed for a site that never had one, and reliably polling thousands of feeds without falling behind or hammering source servers.
How much does Inoreader cost?
Inoreader costs $9.99/mo (about $120/yr) as of undefined. That's what a working rebuild would save you.
What do I lose by building it myself?
"Web feeds" for sites that never published RSS requires scraping and parsing arbitrary, constantly-changing HTML into a clean feed — an ongoing maintenance problem as sites redesign, not a one-time integration Reliably polling potentially thousands of feeds across many users, on a schedule, without missing updates or overloading source servers, is real infrastructure most personal RSS readers never need to solve Active Search — a saved query that becomes its own live feed — needs real search infrastructure once run across enough aggregated feeds and users
Similar products you could build
Closest matches on the register — ranked by the build parts they share with Inoreader, not just by category.