NewsBlur vs Skybrary

NewsBlur is a personal reader for RSS and web feeds, synchronized across web, iOS, Android, API, and self-hosted use. Readers can train feeds to highlight or hide stories by author, tag, and title; the Archive plan adds full-text training. Web Feeds monitor sites without RSS and present updates as custom feeds. The free plan supports up to 64 sites, real-time RSS updates, story saving, training, and mobile apps. New accounts receive a 30-day premium trial without a credit card, then retain feeds and training on the free tier. Premium costs $36 a year, Premium Pro $29 a month, and Premium Archive $99 a year. Depending on plan, features include search, larger site limits, more frequent fetching, River of News, story clustering, permanent searchable archives, Ask AI, daily briefings, and MCP tools. NewsBlur also describes IFTTT and Zapier workflows, a public API, third-party reader sync, and open-source self-hosting.

Skybrary is a reading app for children ages 3–9, with eBooks and virtual field-trip videos on Android, iOS, and the web. Its free plan includes 100 books, 50 adventure videos, up to five child profiles, reading progress tracking, and offline access. The paid family library offers 1,000+ handpicked books and 150+ virtual field trips. Read-aloud narration and text highlighting support reading practice, and children can save books for offline use. A Family Dashboard tracks lifetime minutes, completed books and videos, and recent favorites. Educators have dashboards, reading reports, lesson plans, roster tools, and classroom management features; school accounts can use Clever rostering and sign-in. The Classroom Plan is for classes of up to 35 students, while the School Plan supports up to 350 students and 10 classrooms. Skybrary says it does not display ads or sell student data to third parties. A 30-day trial is listed, and paid family plans start at $6.99 a month. Virtual field trips do not currently support closed captioning.