How to find a website's RSS feed, or follow a site without one

To find a website's RSS feed, search the page source for a link tag of type "application/rss+xml", try the platform's standard path (/feed/ on WordPress, /rss/ on Ghost), or paste the site's address into a reader such as Feedly or Inoreader. With no feed, RSS.app or FetchRSS can build one, and Visualping or Distill.io can watch the page.

This guide is for anyone adding a site to a feed reader, an automation or a news briefing. Full disclosure: Avos is our product. Facts about the other tools and platforms come from their own docs and pricing pages, linked below.

How do you find the RSS feed in a page's source?

Most sites that publish a feed announce it in their HTML:

1. Open the site's homepage, or the blog or news page you want to follow.
2. Right-click and choose View Page Source.
3. Search the source for application/rss+xml, then for application/atom+xml.
4. Copy the href value. If it starts with a slash, put the site's domain in front of it.

The line you're looking for is a link element like this one:

<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="https://example.com/feed/">

The RSS Advisory Board's autodiscovery spec says it "must be placed within a web page's head element" with href, rel and type; title is optional. The HTML standard treats rel="alternate" with application/rss+xml or application/atom+xml as a hyperlink "referencing a syndication feed".

Two catches: a page can declare several feeds (posts, comments, a category), so pick the posts feed; and the tag is optional, so a site can have a feed it doesn't announce. Then try the standard paths.

What are the feed URLs on WordPress, Substack, Ghost, Medium, Blogger and YouTube?

Each platform's own documentation gives a default feed address. Replace the example names with the real ones.

These are defaults, and a site owner can turn feeds off. Ghost says the public feed isn't available on a site in Private Site Mode, and Blogger says site feeds don't work with private blogs. If a path returns an error page, go back to the page source.

Can a feed reader or browser extension find it for you?

Yes, and for most people it's the fastest route.

• Feedly. "Simply paste the website URL, and Feedly will offer any available RSS feeds, including sub-feeds", per its docs on following sources.
• Inoreader. Click Add feed (or press A), then type the site's name or paste its address; results show each feed's followers, articles per week and latest articles (help).
• Inoreader's RSS feed finder. If you only need the feed's address for another app, this free page "loads the page you paste, follows every feed link the page declares" and checks that each one works before listing it. It needs no account.
• A browser extension. Inoreader's extension can "Detect and follow RSS feeds" on the page you're viewing.

How can you follow a website that doesn't have an RSS feed?

Feed builders build a feed from a page of links, such as a blog index or a press page.

• RSS.app says it can "Instantly generate RSS feeds from any URL". Its free plan covers 2 native RSS feeds, from sites that already provide one, refreshed every 24 hours; paid plans start at Basic, $8.32 a month billed annually, with 15 feeds refreshed every 60 minutes (pricing, free plan guide).
• FetchRSS takes a URL, detects the posts on the page, or lets you pick blocks in a visual builder, and gives you the feed at its own address (fetchrss.com). Free: 5 feeds, updated every 24 hours, 5 posts each, deleted after 7 days of inactivity. Basic: $4.95 a month for 25 feeds, updated every 3 hours (prices).
• RSS-Bridge is free and open source, "The RSS feed for websites missing it": it has ready-made bridges for many sites, runs on your own server, and the project lists one officially hosted instance (GitHub).
• Inside your reader. Feedly's RSS Builder "analyzes pages with structured lists of links" and is on Pro+ or Enterprise (docs). Inoreader's web feeds do the same job on Pro.

Page monitors tell you that something changed, not what's new in a list.

• Visualping sends an alert "with a highlighted screenshot whenever a change is detected", by email, and on higher plans by text message or Slack (visualping.io). Free: 5 pages and 150 checks a month, checked at most every 60 minutes. Personal starts at $10 a month billed annually, or $14 monthly (pricing).
• Distill.io lets you "Select the parts of the page you want to track" and alerts you by notification, email, SMS or apps (distill.io). Free: 25 monitors, 5 of them in the cloud, cloud checks at most every 6 hours. Starter is listed at $15 a month (pricing).

Rule of thumb: a list of posts wants a feed builder; one page whose content changes (prices, a policy, job openings) wants a monitor.

How do the options compare?

Checked on 6 November 2026 against the official pages linked above: the RSS autodiscovery spec, each platform's docs, Feedly's and Inoreader's help pages, and the pricing pages of RSS.app, FetchRSS, Visualping and Distill.io.

How do you follow a website in Avos?

In Avos, a News section reads the feeds you add and writes up what's new in an email on your schedule.

1. Search the feed directory. In a section's Feeds settings, choose RSS and search the built-in directory: news and business titles in every Avos language, many blogs and trade titles, and official sources such as USGS earthquakes, the Federal Reserve, the ECB, the FDA and arXiv.
2. Or paste the feed URL you found with the steps above. A standard RSS or Atom feed works, including one built by RSS.app or FetchRSS; Avos checks every feed daily and tells you if one stops working. You can also ask the AI editor to add a feed.
3. No feed at all? Add a Web search (a live web search for a query) or a Custom topic (a news search with its own language and region) that names the site or company, such as "Northwind Robotics product announcements". That catches what's written about it, which isn't the same as every change to the site itself.
4. Write a filter in plain words, such as "Only product launches and pricing changes."
5. Schedule it daily, weekly on the weekdays you choose, or monthly, at your time and in your timezone.

Avos checks every RSS feed daily: one that stops working is marked in the section's settings, you get one email about it, and the AI editor offers a replacement. For YouTube, skip the feed address and add the channel by @handle or link; a section summarizes what is said in each video (YouTube and podcasts in one email).

For one event, a news alert watches the same feeds and emails you when a new item meets a condition, such as "the company announces a new product"; an alert's web searches cost more per check, so they run less often. Avos reads new stories; it doesn't watch a page for visual changes. More on feeds to email: RSS feeds to a daily email briefing.

When is another option the better choice?

• You read every item as it's published. A feed reader shows each post; Avos summarizes on a schedule.
• You need to know when one page changes. Visualping or Distill.io check the page itself.
• You need a site's own posts and it has no feed. Build one with RSS.app or FetchRSS. A search in Avos finds coverage, not every post.

FAQ

How do I know if a website has an RSS feed?

Search its page source for application/rss+xml or application/atom+xml, or paste its address into Feedly, Inoreader or Inoreader's free feed finder. If nothing turns up, try the platform's default path, such as /feed/ for WordPress.

How do I get the RSS feed of a YouTube channel?

Use www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id= followed by the channel's ID: it returns the channel's latest uploads as an Atom feed (YouTube's developer docs describe the same feed under /xml/feeds/). In Avos you can skip that and add the channel by @handle or link.

Is there a free way to follow a site without RSS?

Yes, within limits: FetchRSS builds 5 feeds free, updated daily; Visualping watches 5 pages free; Distill.io runs 25 monitors free, 5 in the cloud.

Can Avos follow a website that has no feed?

Not the site itself. Avos can follow what's written about it, with a Web search or Custom topic that names it, or read a feed you built with RSS.app or FetchRSS. It doesn't watch pages for changes.