I have been checking my server logs semi-regularly of late after an AI bot hit our site hard on two days in March. (Note: I use Cloudron to manage the server running The New Leaf Journal and access our logs from Cloudron’s control panel.) While reviewing the logs — I noticed that certain RSS/ATOM feed subscription services include how many individual feed subscribers they have when they request a feed.
Brief Re-Introduction to Feeds
Before continuing, you can read my general introduction to RSS and ATOM feeds and feed readers if you are not familiar with the subject. I also encourage you to subscribe to The New Leaf Journal via feed, which you can learn about in our feed directory. I will assume going forward that readers have some base-line level familiarity with feeds and feed readers. There are many entirely local feed readers (as in an app that runs on a single device with no central server) as well as self-hostable solutions (I run my own Miniflux instance using Pikapods). There are also many services which host feeds and feed readers for customers (some have limited free plans). One now-defunct example is the old Google Reader.
Our Feed Service Subscribers
While I was reviewing my server logs, I noticed the names of several popular feed services: Feedly, Inoreader, Feedbin, Newsblur, and BazQux. While I was not surprised to seed feed services, I noticed that these particular services advertised how many subscribers they had in the request string. I submit our stats (as of the evening of May 2, 2025) below:
| Feed Service | NLJ Subscribers |
|---|---|
| BazQux | 2 |
| Feedbin | 27 |
| Feedbin* | 1 |
| Feedly | 42 |
| Inoreader | 32 |
| Inoreader | 4 |
| NewsBlur | 17 |
| The Old Reader | 3 |
I am not an expert on feed reading services, but the ranking comes out along the lines of what I would have expected based on what I have read. I would have assumed that Feedly and Inoreader, both proprietary feed subscription services, had the most customers. In third and fourth places we have the open source Feedbin and NewsBlur. I had to dig into my logs to see that we apparently have a handfull of subscribers from the proprietary The Old Reader and BazQux services. I did not come across any other RSS services in my log that list the number of subscribers.
As you can see on my table, Inoreader shows up twice. The user agent string is the same in both the 32 and 4 subscriber cases, save for the subscriber number difference. I suspect that one is for “free” users and the other is for paying customers, but that is just my hunch.
A single Feedbin subscriber follows our Leaflet post type feed (https://thenewleafjournal.com/leaf/feed/), which I have not used much since launching The Emu Café Social. I am all but certain this person is also one of the regular feed subscribers since I will venture you have to be a careful reader to find and subscribe to the Leaflet feed.
Fun Notes
I found a couple of other fun little notes.
- All of the strings indicate these subscribers are using our base RSS feed, which his https://thenewleafjournal.com/feed (or /leaf/feed in the case of the custom post type subscriber). Do note we also offer ATOM feeds at /feed/atom and JSON feeds at /feed/json (I use the JSON feed to subscribe to me in Miniflux).
- Feedbin assigns a seven-number “feed-id” to our feeds. The IDs for our base feed and the leaf feed are different.
- Newsblur includes a full URL for what I assume is our site page on Newsblur (https://www.newsblur.com/site/8126218/the-new-leaf-journal) but it redirects to the home page when I try to open it (I assume one would need an account to see the page). This page seems to have one subscriber, but I do not know what that means in practice.
Other Feed Readers Spotted in Logs
While one can use a paid service to subscribe to and read RSS feeds, no such service is necessary. There are many feed readers and parsers that run entirely locally as well as self-hosted options. For example, I previously used different local readers such as Akregator, QuiteRSS, and Handy Reading. At the moment I am using my own Miniflux instance. While it would be difficult if not impossible to discern precisely how many feed subscribers I have from the non-service feed subscribers, I was able to identify many feed fetching user agents in my logs.
Open Source Self-Hostable Feed Readers
iOS/MacOS Feed Readers
Android Feed Readers
Android and iOS
Other Desktop Feed Readers
RSS to Email Services
Miscellaneous Parsers
Analysis
This list is most likely incomplete for a variety of reasons, one being that some people may use some of the feed readers listed above as clients for feed reading services or servers, meaning the reader itself does not do any fetching (NetNewsWire, Newsboat, and Newsflash are examples of readers that can be used in this way). Moreover, I conducted this search by looking for what I assumed were the most likely default user agent strings for common readers and services. Some readers may use a generic user agent string and many allow the user to edit the string (I can do that in Miniflux). In any event, it does seem likely that FreshRSS and Miniflux are the most popular ones from this list, followed by a few from the MacOS/iOS category (note I do not know much about the MacOS/iOS feed readers).
Positive Take-Aways
I do not run any tracking in our feeds, so the server logs provide an interesting look at our feed subscriber numbers. (Note: WordPress developer Jeff Starr, who every WordPress admin should be following, maintains a free WordPress plugin called Simple Statistics for Feeds for people who are looking for more detailed feed statistics.) I am glad to see that we have a decent number of feed subscribers (thank you to all). If you are not already using a feed reader, I encourage you to consider the benefits I described in various articles (note again that there are local feed readers for every operating system of consequence, you do not need to sign up for, much less pay for, a centralized service). If you do use a feed reader, I trust that The New Leaf Journal and related projects will be in your collection.
Invitation to Comment
If you are an RSS/ATOM/JSON (or even TWTXT) feed subscriber, feel free to say hello in our Guestbook and note which feed reader you use (our former Guestbook saw commenters discuss Mailbrew and Liferea). I would be interested in learning and perhaps your choice in feed reader will inspire others. If you post a comment, you can be the first to know when I respond by subscribing to our Guestbook’s RSS, ATOM, or JSON feed.
