Feedbin

Ben Ubois launched Feedbin in 2013 after Google shut down Google Reader, leaving millions of RSS users without their primary reading tool. Ben had been building a local RSS reader for himself and realized the moment to launch a paid hosted version had arrived. He launched at $3/month — deliberately simple, deliberately charged, no free tier. Feedbin focused obsessively on speed and reliability, with a clean reading interface and comprehensive API support. Third-party apps (Reeder, NetNewsWire, ReadKit) integrated with Feedbin, making it the back-end engine for a whole ecosystem of RSS readers. Ben ran Feedbin entirely solo for years. Revenue remained modest — tens of thousands of dollars per month from a dedicated user base — but it was profitable and sustainable. Feedbin never raised outside funding. Ben added features like newsletter support (subscribe to email newsletters and read them in Feedbin like RSS), making it a central hub for intentional reading. A beautiful example of a sustainable small-scale indie software business.