Google Reader is on its way out, but what about its close cousin, Feedburner? Google hasn’t declared the project dead in the water, but the service has stagnated since Google purchased it in 2007. If I were a betting man, I’d say it would be worth your while to consider transitioning to one of the great alternatives to Feedburner featured on this list.
1. If This Then That
If This Then That is decidedly more modern. Hop over to the website and check out the homepage. You will learn nothing from the first page alone, but each page oozes a clean design.
It’s not an alternative to Feedburner in the traditional sense. Think of it this way – IFTTT allows for easy interactions between various online services. If “I update Facebook” then “post to WordPress“, Simple RSS feed management is available. So if you want a feed to be updated whenever you post to your website or any of your social networks, IFTTT may be the service for you.
2. RevResponse
RevResponse is willing to pay you to transition from Feedburner. The service offers $100 for every 1,000 subscribers you acquire. Will it pay the bills? No. But if you’re a rock star, then it could be a nice perk.
All that aside, if you want to transfer your current subscribers without forcing them to resubscribe, RevResponse makes this possible. The service offers RSS-to-email options, scheduling, and various templates, and generates reports about your performance.
3. Feedity
Feedity is a paid service, but it offers a free trial plan that comes with ads and permits up to five feeds, a 24-hour update interval, and ten items per feeds. If these restrictions don’t scare you away, you may find that Feedity offers a more modern appearance than Feedburner and provides straightforward tools for building your own RSS feeds. Feedity is also useful for creating RSS feeds from other people’s websites, allowing you to track whatever content you wish regardless of whether an RSS feed already exists for it.
4. Nourish
Nourish allows you to convert any RSS feed into an automated newsletter that your readers can subscribe to. If you don’t send over 1,000 emails per month or have the need for custom templates, then it’s completely free to use. Wanting more will cost you. You can use Nourish in conjunction with another service that manages your RSS feed or you can just create an RSS feed from scratch and trust Nourish to keep subscribers notified.
5. FeedBlitz
FeedBlitz is packed with features. Want to integrate with Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and LinkedIn all from a single service? It’s all there. FeedBlitz also lets you port your feed from Feedburner without losing subscribers and provides you with metrics so you can monitor your performance. The catch? Unlike the other services on this list, it’s only free for 30 days.
Conclusion
Feedburner remains a popular service because it is feature-rich and free to use. None of these alternatives to Feedburner are a perfect match or can match it feature-for-feature, but if you dabble around, you might find that a combination of free alternatives can meet your needs just fine. If you know of any more free options, please share them with us in the comments below.
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