5 Best WordPress RSS Aggregator Plugins (Free & Paid)
There are over a dozen WordPress RSS aggregator plugins out there, each offering a unique set of features and functionality.
This article will explore the top 5 RSS aggregator plugins that can transform your WordPress site into a content powerhouse. From streamlining content syndication to enhancing user engagement, these plugins are designed to cater to a range of preferences and requirements. We’ve got a detailed list of features for each plugin, including differences between free & premium versions, as well as complete price breakdowns.
First, let’s briefly explain what RSS is, how RSS aggregators work, and what they are commonly used for.
RSS is an XML format for distributing news headlines and other content on the web, mainly news articles & blog posts. Depending on who you ask, RSS stands for either “really simple syndication,” “RDF site summary,” or “rich site summary.” Basically, RSS is a simple, standardized method for distributing written content found on the internet.
An RSS aggregator is a piece of software or online tool that uses the RSS format to collect (or aggregate) written content from different sources, and display it in a single interface.
RSS aggregation software can be…
- standalone software you download to your computer, tablet, or mobile device (i.e. apps)
- built-in to a web browser like Google Chrome
- utilized on a WordPress site, where information from different sources is aggregated & displayed on a webpage
This article will focus on RSS aggregation on a WordPress site.
Using a WordPress RSS aggregator plugin has several advantages.
- one centralized location to consume content from multiple sources
- customize the user interface to match your site’s brand
- attract visitors to your site by curating their favorite content in one place
There aren’t many disadvantages for the one aggregating the content, however, the content consumer might want to consider the following:
- the reader doesn’t get the full experience that the original website provides
- the content author or original website could miss out on site visits and/or advertising revenue
Most users of RSS readers & aggregation services agree that the advantages outweigh the negatives.
You still might be asking yourself, “do I need an RSS aggregator for my site?” If you’re on the fence, here are a handful of potential ways you can use a WordPress RSS aggregator plugin to attract more traffic and ultimately grow your website and your business.
- increase traffic by curating news from multiple sources
- become an expert in a particular niche by aggregating content about that niche
- list & promote products from multiple ecommerce sites
- display affiliate links by pulling in RSS feeds of products you promote
- automatically post new content on your site by pulling in feeds from other sources (this works for text, audio, and video content)
- create a video playlist of the most relevant YouTube videos for a given topic
- automatically curate job listings to provide your readers with career opportunities
There are tons of creative ways to use an RSS aggregator, and we’ll walk you through the best WordPress aggregation plugins to make it happen.
Here’s an overview of the best RSS aggregator plugins for WordPress, with a few quick notes to help you decide which one is best for you. I cover a few other WordPress RSS plugins down below (not necessarily aggregators), but these 5 are the main ones I recommend for content aggregation on a WordPress site.
Bottom Line: WP RSS Aggregator & Feedzy are both actively maintained plugins with solid features, but we give the nod to WP RSS Aggregator as the best all-around option.
| RSS Aggregator Plugin | Premium starts at |
Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WP RSS Aggregator | $79/yr. | ⭐️ Best overall, free & premium. Lower price point for AI features. |
| 2 | Feedzy RSS Aggregator | $99/yr. | A great option with a slightly higher starting price point. |
| 3 | CyberSEO | $35/yr. | No free version. Supports many content sources. Very AI-focused. Affordable. |
| 4 | WPeMatico RSS Feed Fetcher | $82/yr. | Free version w/ solid features. Premium add-ons get expensive. |
| 5 | Super RSS Reader | $25/yr. | Free version is very limited. Even pro version has big limitations. |
| RSS Feed Retriever | $29/yr. | Honorable mention. Simple & free shortcode only option. Not updated as recently as others. |
Disclaimer: RebelCode, the parent company of WP Mayor, also owns WP RSS Aggregator.
WP RSS Aggregator was created out of a desire to create a news section on WP Mayor, which would import news from other noteworthy WordPress blogs. This would serve both WP Mayor’s authors, as well as those in the WordPress community looking to stay informed on the latest WordPress happenings.
What started out as a simple plugin quickly turned into a robust aggregation tool. For an in-depth look at what this plugin can do, check out our WP RSS Aggregator review.
Features
The free plugin comes with a ton of features, but premium plans include such functionality as adding excerpts and thumbnails to your feed items, custom templates for displaying feed content, keyword filtering, sorting by category, the ability to import feeds into posts and any other custom post types, as well as the ability to import the full content of posts even when it’s not provided within the RSS feed, a great tool for creating an auto-blogging or content curation website.
| WP RSS Aggregator Features | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Import unlimited content | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content from unlimited sites | ✅ | ✅ |
| Customize design/layout of feed output | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a block to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a shortcode to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-discover RSS feeds (no feed URL required) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import & display YouTube videos from a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Limit the number of items displayed in a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content as posts or custom post types | ❌ | ✅ |
| Schedule publishing | ❌ | ✅ |
| Import images & set categories, tags, and author | ❌ | ✅ |
| Prepend & append custom text to feed content | ❌ | ✅ |
| Multiple display templates, including list, grid, excerpts & thumbnails | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automations & filtering (keywords, phrases, categories, tags) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manual curation | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI integrations (WordAI & Spinner Chief) | ❌ | ✅ |
Free Plugin
As you can see in the table above, the free WP RSS Aggregator plugin provides enough for most users to get started. You can display unlimited feeds from unlimited websites, including YouTube videos, and insert those feeds anywhere on your site using blocks or shortcodes.
To turn these feeds into actual post content on your site, modify, schedule, or filter that content, and have access to enhanced design & layout options, you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.
Premium Plans
WP RSS Aggregator offers 4 premium plans, each with different features:
- Basic, $79/yr. – Includes all design/layout templates, as well as all filtering options.
- Plus, $149/yr. – Adds the ability to import RSS content as posts (or custom post types) on your site, schedule content, and prepend/append custom content.
- Pro, $179/yr. – Offers all plugin features, except for the AI integrations. Most notably, this plan allows you to import full content from truncated feeds & manually curate them.
- All Access, $249/yr. – Offers everything in Pro, plus the addition of AI integrations
AI Integrations
One of things that sets WP RSS Aggregator apart from other content curation plugins is its integrations with WordAI and Spinner Chief. These integrations allow you to rewrite the content from your RSS feed items, change the titles to fit your updated content, and publish your own unique content inspired by someone else’s post.
- Simply enable the integrations from your dashboard
- Set the uniqueness level for how much you want AI to tweak the content
- Let the integrations do the work
- Review & publish the new content on your site
Check out the WP RSS Aggregator plugin below.
The Feedzy RSS Aggregator plugin by ThemeIsle is very similar to WP RSS Aggregator. Both plugins offer a similar feature set, actively maintain both free & premium versions, and provide some of the best aggregation features of any WordPress plugin. I highly recommend them as the two best WordPress RSS aggregators on the market today.
Features
Feedzy’s features are very similar to WP RSS Aggregator above. They also offer a free version that will be enough for many to get started, but you’ll need to upgrade as soon as you want to create your own content from other feeds.
Feedzy also has a nice Amazon affiliate integration which makes it easy to list affiliate links to products on Amazon, in addition to their URL prepend/append feature for adding a quick URL parameter to the end of a feed item link.
| Feedzy Features | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Import unlimited content | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content from unlimited sites | ✅ | ✅ |
| Customize design/layout of feed output | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a block to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a shortcode to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-discover RSS feeds (no feed URL required) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import & display YouTube videos from a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Limit the number of items displayed in a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content as posts or custom post types | ❌ | ✅ |
| Schedule publishing | ❌ | ❌ |
| Import images & set categories, tags, and author | ❌ | ✅ |
| Easily prepend & append custom text to feed content | ❌ | ❌ |
| Multiple display templates, including list, grid, excerpts & thumbnails | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automations & filtering (keywords, phrases, categories, tags) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manual curation | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI integrations (ChatGPT, WordAI & Spinner Chief) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Amazon API integration (for Amazon affiliates) | ❌ | ✅ |
Check out the Feedzy RSS plugin below.
CyberSEO bills itself as much more of an auto-blogging & content creation tool than an RSS aggregator. It takes an AI-heavy approach to creating content, including image generation and even creating article comments via AI.
While it does contain a lot of advanced features & AI integrations, it almost feels like their website was created with AI, and their YouTube videos contain robotic-sounding voiceovers. This might be fine for some, but I can see others having a bit of a tough time trusting a plugin like this. Ultimately, it’s up for you to decide, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
You’ll only be able to create full posts on your site with CyberSEO (not just list feed items), but you will get some features that no other RSS aggregator on this list offers.
Features
In addition to the standard features below, CyberSEO also includes:
- it’s own synonymizer/rewriter (in lieu of integrations with WordAI & Spinner Chief)
- support for Spintax
- auto-comment generation, via file upload or ChatGPT
- ability to use custom PHP code snippets to manipulate feeds
- an impressive list of content sources including Vimeo, Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, AliExpress, ShareASale, Amazon, and more
| CyberSEO Features | Premium |
|---|---|
| Import unlimited content | ✅ |
| Import content from unlimited sites | ✅ |
| Customize design/layout of feed output | ✅ |
| Provides a block to display feeds | ❌ |
| Provides a shortcode to display feeds | ❌ |
| Auto-discover RSS feeds (no feed URL required) | ✅ |
| Import & display YouTube videos from a feed | ✅ |
| Limit the number of items displayed in a feed | ✅ |
| Import content as posts or custom post types | ✅ |
| Schedule publishing | ❌ |
| Import images & set categories, tags, and author | ✅ |
| Prepend & append custom text to feed content | ❌ |
| Multiple display templates, including list, grid, excerpts & thumbnails (use custom HTML instead) | ❌ |
| Automations & filtering (keywords, phrases, categories, tags) | ✅ |
| Manual curation | ✅ |
| Amazon integration | ✅ |
| AI integrations (ChatGPT, DALL·E 3, Stable Diffusion) | ✅ |
CyberSEO Plans
CyberSEO doesn’t offer a free plugin, and all of their premium plans include all pro features. The only difference is how many sites you can use the plugin on.
- $34.95/yr. – 1 site
- $149.95/yr. – 10 sites
- $299.95/yr. – 100 sites
Their pricing page mentions these are one-time fees, however, they only offer plugin updates for one year. So essentially, it is a yearly subscription. But they do offer 50% off the initial price for subsequent years when you renew.
CyberSEO offers a slimmed down version of their plugin called RSS Retriever. It comes at a smaller cost and is truly a one-time fee. They promise plugin updates for the lifetime of the product.
- $19.95/yr. – 1 site
- $79.95/yr. – 10 sites
- $149.95/yr. – 100 sites
Here’s a full comparison of CyberSEO vs RSS Retriever so you can see which one has the features you need.
Check out CyberSEO & RSS Retriever below.
WPeMatico is similar in features to WP RSS Aggregator & Feedzy. One of the notable features it includes that the others don’t mention is its ability to publish to forums, topics and answers in bbPress forums. Most of its others features are mostly inline with our top 2 recommendations.
It also offers a Synchronizer feature as a premium add-on that will check the original source and keep it in sync with content you published on your site. Other premium add-ons include:
- Facebook fetcher
- Publish remotely via email
- Advanced caching
- Several other features included in a “Professional” add-on
You can purchase each premium add-on one at a time, or buy a package that includes all (or most) of the add-ons combined.
The big downsides to WPeMatico are that it doesn’t appear to include different layout/design options for displaying feed content, nor does it integrate with any AI tools to manipulate the feed content after you import it.
| WPeMatico Features | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Import unlimited content | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content from unlimited sites | ✅ | ✅ |
| Customize design/layout of feed output | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a block to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Provides a shortcode to display feeds | ✅ | ✅ |
| Auto-discover RSS feeds (no feed URL required) | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import & display YouTube videos from a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Limit the number of items displayed in a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content as custom post types | ❌ | ✅ |
| Schedule publishing | ❌ | ❌ |
| Import images & set categories, tags, and author | ❌ | ✅ |
| Prepend & append custom text to feed content | ❌ | ❌ |
| Multiple display templates, including list, grid, excerpts & thumbnails | ❌ | ❌ |
| Automations & filtering (keywords, phrases, categories, tags) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Manual curation | ❌ | ✅ |
| AI integrations | ❌ | ❌ |
WPeMatico Plans
- Essentials: $82/yr.
- Plus: $149/yr.
- Perfect: $281/yr.
Check out WPeMatico plans & pricing to compare the features with each plan.
Super RSS Reader is another WordPress aggregator plugin to consider, however it’s pretty limited in its free version. It only includes a WordPress widget to output feed items, and doesn’t allow you to combine multiple feeds without upgrading. There is also no block to insert content, and its shortcode is only available in the pro version. It also doesn’t offer any AI integrations, or ability to tweak the content imported from feeds.
And you can’t create your own content with Super RSS Reader. It only imports content to be displayed on your site via widget or shortcode.
| Super RSS Reader Features | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Import unlimited content | ✅ | ✅ |
| Import content from unlimited sites (premium required to merge feeds) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Customize design/layout of feed output | ❌ | ✅ |
| Provides a block to display feeds | ❌ | ❌ |
| Provides a shortcode to display feeds | ❌ | ✅ |
| Auto-discover RSS feeds (no feed URL required) | ❌ | ❌ |
| Import & display YouTube videos from a feed | ✅ | ✅ |
| Limit the number of items displayed in a feed | ❌ | ❌ |
| Import content as posts or custom post types | ❌ | ❌ |
| Schedule publishing | ❌ | ❌ |
| Import images |
❌ | ✅ |
| Prepend & append custom text to feed content | ❌ | ❌ |
| Multiple display templates, including list, grid, excerpts & thumbnails | ❌ | ✅ |
| Automations & filtering (keywords, phrases, |
❌ | ✅ |
| Manual curation | ❌ | ❌ |
| AI integrations (WordAI & Spinner Chief) | ❌ | ❌ |
You can try out the free version, but consider yourself warned—it’s very limited. And you get all premium features with each pro plan.
- 1 site: $25/yr.
- 10 sites: $89/yr.
- Unlimited sites: $129/yr.
Check out Super RSS Reader below.
Some WordPress RSS plugins don’t make it into my official recommendations, however they might still be helpful for specific use cases. Here are a few plugins that add features for WordPress RSS feeds, but aren’t necessarily aggregation plugins.
And we’ll include one aggregation plugin that hasn’t been updated in a while but is still being used on over 10,000 WordPress sites.
I don’t officially recommend the RSS Feed Retriever because it was last updated in Jan 2023. However, it has 34 5-star reviews out of 38 total, and is actively used on over 10,000 sites.
It provides a super simple shortcode to put an RSS feed on your site, including a handful of parameters to customize the display. You can import an unlimited number of feeds from unlimited sites, however, each feed needs to use it’s own shortcode. You cannot combine feeds into one display.
There’s a pro version for $29/yr. but I’d only recommend using the free version if all you want is a simple shortcode to display content from one-off RSS feeds.
Here’s a simple example of how to use the shortcode with RSS Feed Retriever.
[wp_rss_retriever url="https://SITE-FEED-URL-HERE" items="10" excerpt="50" read_more="true" credits="true" new_window="true" thumbnail="200" cache="12 hours"]There are 14 total parameters to customize the feed output, as well as 3 additional parameters in the pro version, which allow you to customize the columns and layout of the feed display.
By default, WordPress only includes Posts in its RSS feeds. This simple, free WordPress plugin adds Pages to your RSS feed. If you want to allow other sites to syndicate your Posts and Pages, give RSS Includes Pages a try.
There is also a pro version ($15 one-time fee) that allows you to:
- specify that only pages are included in the feeds (no posts)
- exclude/include posts and pages by ID
- add custom post types to your feed, such as WooCommerce products
FeedWordPress
I don’t officially recommend FeedWordPress because…
- it was last updated in Feb 2022
- it hasn’t been tested with WordPress 6.x
- very little (if any) support is provided
- it only creates posts on your site (no listing of feed excerpts or content)
- the settings & customization are not beginner friendly (some dev experience required)
However, it still has over 10,000 active installations and a 4.3 out of 5 star rating, with 41 5-star ratings. I feel confident in saying that it’s still being used by quite a few WordPress sites.
If FeedWordPress is the only RSS aggregation plugin that provides the exact features you need, it might be worth trying it out on a test site to see if it plays nice with your site. Proceed cautiously, as any plugin that hasn’t been updated in a while could contain bugs or conflicts with other plugins, or with WordPress itself.
This is a free plugin that lets you quickly add links to category- and tag-specific RSS feeds on your own site. It won’t help you with aggregation, but it could help your readers, or others aggregating your content, more easily import/read only the content they’re interested in.
By default, WordPress provides category- and tag-specific RSS feed URLs. You can simply add /feed to the end of a category or tag page URL, like this:
https://yoursite.com/category/{category-name}/feed/
The one additional benefit this plugin provides is the option to create 8 custom feeds out of your site’s content. If a category or tag feed isn’t specific enough, consider this plugin for a bit more customization of your own site’s feeds.
This is another WordPress RSS aggregator plugin with very limited functionality. The free version only provides a WordPress widget to display a feed. To even use a shortcode, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version for $60.
It does have some 5-star reviews, but there are just better free options out there. I can’t find many reasons why you’d want to take a chance with this one, unless you specifically just need to display a single feed in a WordPress widget area.
WordPress Aggregation Plugins to Avoid
You might find old, outdated, and discontinued WordPress RSS plugins in other articles. Some of these RSS aggregators you can’t even install anymore because they’ve been discontinued. Others haven’t been updated in over a year, and I wouldn’t recommend a plugin that isn’t actively maintained.
Therefore, I don’t recommend using the following WordPress aggregation plugins:
- CM RSS Aggregator by CreativeMinds – A premium-only plugin that was last updated in December 2022. With no free version and a lack of active maintenance, I can’t recommend this one.
- RSS Post Importer by feedsapi – Last updated in 2018 and officially closed in October 2019.
- RSSImport by Frank Bültge & took77 – It was closed by WordPress in December 2022 for a security issue and is no longer available for download.
- RSS with Images by ENDif Media – Last updated in July 2020 and has sub par user ratings.
- Custom Simple Rss by Danny(Danikoo) Haggag – Last updated in April 2021 and not actively maintained.
FAQ
How do I use an RSS aggregator in WordPress?
First, you install an RSS aggregation plugin onto your site. Then, you import RSS feeds from other sites to display on your own. Each WordPress RSS aggregator plugin has different settings, but most allow you to customize the output of the content that you import.
Is WordPress RSS aggregation free?
WordPress provides RSS feeds for free. Unless disabled, these feeds can be imported (or aggregated) and displayed by other websites. Displaying another site’s RSS feed requires either a plugin or custom code. Some plugins are free and others require payment.
How do I aggregate RSS feeds?
You aggregate RSS feeds in WordPress by installing an RSS aggregator plugin or writing your own custom code. There are both free & premium WordPress RSS aggregator plugins available.
Is an RSS reader the same as an aggregator?
Yes, the terms “RSS reader” and “RSS aggregator” can be used interchangeably. They both typically reference one tool that does the aggregating and allows for the reading of content.
WP RSS Aggregator stands above the rest when it comes to RSS aggregation in WordPress, but there are other plugins in this article worth looking into for specific features. I hope you were able to gain a better understanding of how RSS feeds work on WordPress sites, and how you can utilize them to publish more content on your site, attract more visitors, and ultimately grow your site.
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