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Folo

Next-gen information browserOpen source

About Folo

Folo is an open-source AI RSS reader that pulls blogs, news, newsletters, podcasts, video and social feeds into one timeline, then adds AI summaries, translation, read-aloud and Q&A. Maintained by GitHub org RSSNext; called Follow until a 2025-03-19 rename. Clients: web, iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux; code is AGPL-3.0 plus an icon no-redistribution exception. As of 2026-10-25: 39,166 stars, desktop 1.16.0, mobile 0.6.1. Free: 150 feeds, little AI; paid from $49.99/yr. Suits heavy subscribers who want AI to read first; less so for those who need self-hosting or no cloud account.

EditorialUpdated 12 min read

The Folo interface

What it is

Folo is a cross-platform RSS reader. The README pitches it as bringing everything a user follows into "one calm timeline" and then helping them read it (as reported by the vendor). It subscribes to RSS, Atom and JSON Feed sources, and sites without a feed can be followed through RSSHub routes; articles, social posts, pictures, videos and podcasts each get a dedicated layout, with background playback for podcasts and picture-in-picture for video.

There are many ways in: the web app at app.folo.is, the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, Google Play for Android, the Microsoft Store for Windows, and GitHub release packages for Linux; the community also maintains AUR, Flatpak, Nix, Homebrew cask and Scoop packages. Subscriptions, read status and stars sync across devices through an account, so Folo is not a purely local app and needs sign-up.

The repo belongs to the GitHub org RSSNext and is mostly TypeScript. GitHub's language stats (as of 2026-10-25) show about 8.53 MB of TypeScript plus about 148 KB of Swift and 14 KB of Kotlin for native mobile parts. The developer on the App Store listing, and the operator named in the privacy policy, is Natural Selection Labs Pte. Ltd.

Releases ship on two tracks: desktop tags start with desktop/, and the latest, desktop/v1.16.0, came out 2026-10-16 15:10 (UTC+8); mobile tags start with mobile/, and the latest, mobile/v0.6.1, came out 2026-10-19 21:41 (UTC+8). The two version numbers do not correspond, so read their changelogs separately.

Folo sits close to RSSHub. RSSHub is an open-source RSS generator created by GitHub user DIYgod, with 46,652 stars as of 2026-10-25 and also AGPL-3.0; Folo's initial commit was also by DIYgod. Folo turns RSSHub routes into a subscription entry point, and the free tier can follow up to 30 RSSHub feeds.

Folo is an open-source AI RSS reader that brings everything you follow into one calm timeline, then helps you read it.

Folo README, opening paragraph

Core capabilities

AI Q&A (Folo AI): users can ask about one article, one feed, a folder or all their subscriptions, select a model or bring their own API key, and connect MCP services to bring other tools in (as reported by the vendor). Per the pricing page, model choice and bring-your-own-key need Plus or a higher tier.

Timeline Summary: a digest of the day's content across a user's subscriptions, which the README calls a digest of the day.

Translation and summaries: read articles side by side with an AI translation into EN, ZH, JA or FR; per-article summaries run on demand or automatically.

Read-aloud: any article can be turned into speech. The free tier gets 1 a day; Plus and up are unlimited.

AI Tasks: scheduled AI-written daily or weekly briefings delivered to chat or email. The free and Basic tiers get 0 of these; it starts at Plus.

Actions: rules that filter, star, rewrite, notify or summarize new entries automatically. The free tier allows 1 rule; Pro allows 100.

Integrations: send articles to Obsidian, Readwise, Instapaper, Zotero, Cubox, Outline, Readeck and Eagle. The pricing page shows integrations starting at Basic.

Newsletter inbox: each inbox has its own email address, and newsletters sent there become timeline entries.

Everything else: OPML import and export, customizable shortcuts and a command menu, themes, reading fonts, custom CSS and code highlighting, and Spotlight for highlighting chosen keywords. The README also says it is open source with no ads.

Recent changes: the desktop/v1.16.0 notes mention fewer re-renders in the timeline, sidebar, reader and AI chat, much better keyboard and screen reader support, and validation errors shown under the relevant field; features that need a paid plan, such as hiding a list from the timeline, following a list privately, bring-your-own-key and AI tasks, are now labeled with an upgrade prompt.

Who it's for / Not for

For: people with many feeds and a heavy daily load who want an AI summary before deciding what to read. Timeline Summary and auto-summaries are built for exactly this.

For: people who read across languages. Side-by-side translation into EN, ZH, JA and FR saves hopping between translation tools, though the daily count depends on the tier.

For: people already using RSSHub to follow sites without feeds. Folo has RSSHub route search built in, so there is no need to deploy a separate RSSHub instance.

For: people who switch often between phone, tablet, desktop and web. All six platforms have clients, and reading progress syncs via the account.

For: knowledge-management users of Obsidian, Readwise or Zotero, who can send articles straight there.

Not for: people who want offline, local, no-account reading. Folo's sync and AI depend on an account and the vendor's service, and the dev setup in the contributing guide points to the live API by default.

Not for: teams that need to self-host the server. Inference: the repo open-sources the client, the server is not published with it, and a team cannot run the whole service on its own network.

Not for: people on a tight budget who need a lot of AI translation. The free tier has 0 AI translations a day, Basic has 300, and unlimited starts at Plus.

Not for: anyone planning to redistribute the client. The license exception says the contents of icons/mgc may not be redistributed, so replace the icons before shipping a modified build.

How it compares

Inoreader: Inoreader's pricing page (as of 2026-10-25) shows a free tier with 150 feeds; Pro is $7.50 a month billed yearly or $9.99 billed monthly, with a 2,500-feed cap, plus web-page change tracking, newsletter feeds and rules. Folo's free tier is also 150 feeds; Plus caps at 2.5K feeds and works out to $8.33 a month billed yearly or $9.99 billed monthly (App Store in-app price, as of 2026-10-25). The prices are nearly the same; Folo Plus includes unlimited AI summaries, translation and read-aloud with an open-source client, while Inoreader's strengths are web monitoring and a mature rules system, with a closed-source client.

Readwise Reader: Readwise's pricing page (as of 2026-10-25) shows Reader alone at $7.99 a month billed yearly, and the full Reader plus Highlights bundle at $9.99 a month billed yearly. Reader centers on read-later, highlighting and PDF and EPUB reading, with RSS as one input among several, and its AI is called Ghostreader. Folo centers on the subscription timeline and can forward articles to Readwise. They stack: Folo for triage, Reader for close reading and excerpts.

NetNewsWire: its site (as of 2026-10-25) says it is a free and open source RSS reader for Mac, iPhone and iPad. It costs nothing but covers only Apple platforms. Inference: the home page does not mention AI summaries or translation, so those are not its direction. For Apple users who want zero cost, no account and purely local reading, NetNewsWire is the better fit.

Folo Plus costs about the same as Inoreader Pro with a heavier AI tilt and has Android and Windows clients; Inoreader's strength is web-change monitoring; NetNewsWire is free, covers only Apple platforms, and its home page does not mention AI summaries or translation.

Getting started

Step one, the entry point. The fastest is the web app at app.folo.is; clients are also available from the App Store, Google Play or the Microsoft Store, and Linux users can download the AppImage or deb from the GitHub releases page. Mac users can use the folo Homebrew cask, which was at version 1.16.0 as of 2026-10-25.

Step two, create an account. The privacy policy says sign-up collects the user's email, username and password. The App Store listing shows an age rating of 16+ (as of 2026-10-25).

Step three, moving subscriptions. Subscriptions come over by exporting OPML from the old reader and importing it into Folo; the README says OPML import and export are both supported, so the list can also be taken along when leaving.

Step four, cover sites with no feed. Search RSSHub routes in Discover, or paste a site address and let Folo list that site's feeds. Note the free tier caps RSSHub subscriptions at 30.

Step five, try the AI. The free tier gives 3 AI summaries and 1 read-aloud a day and no AI translation; translation needs at least Basic. Every paid tier on the pricing page has a "Start Free Trial" button.

Step six, set up a rule. Start with one Action, for example auto-starring entries with a given keyword, and watch how the timeline changes.

Besides yearly billing, Basic and Plus can be paid monthly ($4.99 and $9.99).

Pricing & license

The pricing page (as of 2026-10-25) lists four tiers and labels yearly billing "Save 17%". Monthly prices come from the in-app purchase list on the App Store us storefront (as of 2026-10-25).

Free: $0. 150 feeds, 1 list, 1 inbox, 1 Action, 3 AI summaries, 0 AI translations and 1 read-aloud a day, 30 RSSHub subscriptions, no model choice and no AI tasks.

Basic: $49.99 a year, or $4.17 a month; $4.99 billed monthly. 1K feeds, 5 lists, 10 inboxes, 5 Actions, 30 summaries and 300 translations a day, private subscriptions, secure image proxy, integrations and email support, 200 RSSHub subscriptions.

Plus: $99.99 a year, or $8.33 a month; $9.99 billed monthly. 2.5K feeds, 15 lists, 20 inboxes, 10 Actions, unlimited summaries, translation and read-aloud, curated models, bring your own key, 5M AI credits, unlimited AI tasks, 500 RSSHub subscriptions.

Pro: $999.99 a year, or $83.33 a month; $99.99 billed monthly. 25K feeds, 100 lists, 200 inboxes, 100 Actions, all high-end models, 50M AI credits, 5K RSSHub subscriptions.

The terms of service (last updated 2025-09-03) say payments for paid features are non-refundable except where required by applicable law.

License: the current license is AGPL-3.0 with one special exception: the contents of the icons/mgc directory are copyrighted by mgc.mingcute.com and may not be redistributed. Tracing the LICENSE file history: on 2024-06-18 12:33 (UTC+8), Innei added LICENSE in commit 0c623ed as MIT, copyright "Follow Team", already carrying the icon note; on 2024-07-06 11:30 (UTC+8), DIYgod switched it to GPL-3.0 in commit a71d111; on 2025-05-22 20:15 (UTC+8), commit e536ad5 filled the copyright placeholder with RSSNext; on 2025-12-28 18:27 (UTC+8), DIYgod switched it to AGPL-3.0 in commit 7d7723f.

Inference: AGPL-3.0 adds no burden for personal use; anyone who modifies the code and offers it to others over a network must make the modified source available to those users.

Risks & limits

Depends on the vendor's cloud: accounts, sync and AI all go through the vendor's servers. The contributing guide has developers set VITE_API_URL to https://api.follow.is, and browser debugging connects to the live API too. Inference: the open-source part is the client and the server is not in this repo; if the vendor changes prices, throttles or shuts down, the client code alone cannot run the full service. The terms of service also say the vendor may modify, expand or discontinue any feature at its discretion.

Little AI on the free tier: 3 summaries, 0 translations and 1 read-aloud a day. Most of the AI features the README spends space on, such as AI Q&A, AI tasks and bring-your-own-key, are only fully available from Plus. desktop/v1.16.0 started labeling paid features in the UI, so the paywall is getting more visible.

Refunds: the terms of service (last updated 2025-09-03) say payments are non-refundable except where required by applicable law. Subscriptions bought through the App Store are managed and canceled under Apple's rules.

Data and privacy: the privacy policy (last updated 2025-09-03) lists the data collected, including email, username, password, subscriptions, usage data, IP address and device information; account data is kept for 6 months after account deletion; and data may be transferred to and stored in several jurisdictions. It promises not to use personal data to train or improve AI models without explicit consent. The App Store privacy label (as of 2026-10-25) declares analytics, diagnostics and crash data collected but not linked to identity.

The license changed three times: MIT, GPL-3.0, AGPL-3.0, with the icon no-redistribution exception on top. Inference: anyone forking Folo and shipping builds needs to replace the icons in icons/mgc and publish changes under the AGPL.

Asset downloads on the GitHub releases page come largely from auto-update manifests. For desktop/v1.16.0, manifest.yml alone has 16,892 downloads (as of 2026-10-25). Download counts are not user counts.

Public signals of user scale are limited: Google Play shows 10K+ downloads, 4.3 stars and 412 reviews; the App Store us storefront shows 4.0 stars from 57 ratings; the Homebrew cask had 1,626 installs in the past 365 days, counting only users with analytics on; all as of 2026-10-25. The README's "Top 1 News App on the App Store" and "Top 1 Trending of the Month on GitHub" badges are as reported by the vendor, with no date, region or ranking basis given.

Early token design: the README at v0.1.0-beta.0 described blockchain as an incentive mechanism, with users holding and using Power Token for services and creators earning rewards. On 2025-08-27 10:04 (UTC+8), commit 6dea9e8 removed the $POWER section from the README.

Issue tracking: as of 2026-10-25, the GitHub search API shows 121 open issues and just 1 open PR.

How it got here

On 2024-04-08 11:23 (UTC+8), the RSSNext/Folo repo was created. Two days later, on 2024-04-10 09:28 (UTC+8), DIYgod made the first commit, initializing the project with electron-vite.

The name changed a few times. On 2024-04-25 00:22 (UTC+8), commit a08de4a renamed the project readok; on 2024-05-04 22:34 (UTC+8), commit 74c19d0 renamed it follow. For almost a year after that, the product went by Follow.

The license direction was set in the first months: MIT on 2024-06-18, GPL-3.0 on 2024-07-06. The first internal build, v0.0.1-internal.1, appeared on the releases page on 2024-07-11 16:25 (UTC+8).

Early access was invite-only. The README at v0.1.0-beta.0 said Follow was still in an early developer preview open to a limited number of users through invitation codes, and it introduced blockchain incentives and Power Token. v0.1.0-beta.0 was published on 2024-10-23 20:19 (UTC+8).

On 2025-03-19 21:43 (UTC+8), PR #3181, opened by DIYgod, was merged and the product was renamed from Follow to Folo; the change touched 92 files with 330 lines added and 330 removed. On 2025-07-03 13:13 (UTC+8), commit d14c8f5 moved to the new domain folo.is. On 2025-08-27, the README dropped its $POWER section. On 2025-12-28, the license became AGPL-3.0.

On 2026-10-02 14:34 (UTC+8), DIYgod rewrote the README around an "AI RSS reader" story with new screenshots. About two weeks later, desktop/v1.16.0 began labeling paid features. The repo's last push was 2026-10-24 17:01 (UTC+8).

Activity: as of 2026-10-25, the dev branch has 7,702 commits. GitHub's contributors API (anon=0) lists accounts including bots such as dependabot; the top committers are Innei with 2,842, DIYgod 2,790, hyoban 990 and lawvs 375. The releases page has 123 releases.

Our verdict

Folo puts an RSS reader, RSSHub routes and AI summaries and translation into one cross-platform client, ships commits at a high rate, and publishes the client code under AGPL-3.0. As of 2026-10-25, its Plus tier costs about the same as Inoreader Pro and buys unlimited AI summaries, translation and read-aloud.

Be clear that the open part is the client; accounts, sync and AI depend on the vendor's service, the free tier's AI allowance is only enough to try things, and the paywall is getting more visible in new releases. The early token design has left the README, but the history is worth knowing.

Inference: Folo's business focus has moved from early token incentives to subscriptions.

The free tier can import subscriptions, and Basic and Plus raise the AI allowance; NetNewsWire is free and covers only Apple platforms; Folo open-sources the client, while accounts, sync and AI all go through the vendor's servers.

Why it stands out

Folo, from the maker of RSSHub, is a reader for the age when everything can be a feed. Articles, social posts, videos, podcasts, and images arrive in one interface with views tailored to each kind of content.

DIYgod had already built the infrastructure that turns almost any website into RSS, and Folo is the front end that infrastructure deserved. The design is confident, the app is fast, and the project is developed in the open with a global community.

From the maker of RSSHub, it brings articles, social posts, videos, podcasts and images into one reader, developed in the open.

Sources

Official

  1. RSSNext/Folo on GitHubGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  2. Folo READMEGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  3. Follow README at tag v0.1.0-beta.0GitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  4. Contributing to FoloGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  5. Folo LICENSE file historyGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  6. Folo commit 0c623ed: feat: add mgc iconSet (#70)GitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  7. Folo commit a71d111: docs: licenseGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026
  8. Folo commit 7d7723f: chore: update licenseGitHub · Accessed Oct 25, 2026

Updates & reading