An old-school RSS reader that gives you room to read slowly.
Lectura brings the blogs and publications you follow into one simple list. Titles, sources, dates. Choose something that interests you and open the article on its original website. Take your time with it.
The story behind Lectura
Lectura was created by Andrei N. Ciobanu.
Lectura began as a personal attempt to build an RSS reader that Andrei could self-host. As the project grew, he saw an opportunity to share it with others who feel nostalgic for RSS and a simpler way to follow blogs and read the web.
You choose what you read
No algorithm fills your personal feed with content it thinks will keep you here. We do not try to learn your behavior. Your feed contains the sources you subscribe to, in chronological order.
Once signed in, you can browse the sources other readers follow. Discovery suggestions use only shared subscriptions. Everyone appears under an alias, and real names are not required. You see their subscriptions, not their reading history. That is all.
Lectura is not a social network. There is no way to connect with, message or interact with other readers here. A reader’s profile is simply a collection of source links under an alias, visible to other signed-in readers. That collection is the only shared content you can change, by adding or removing subscriptions.
There is no hurry
No push notifications, unread counters, reading streaks or endless scrolling. You do not have to keep up with everything. Read one article, skip ten, leave the rest for another day. Lectura can wait.
Feeds are checked automatically on the server, with the frequency adapting to how often each source publishes. The page does not reload itself or interrupt your reading. New articles will be waiting when you next visit.
An old-school website
Lectura is a website, not an app. It uses very little JavaScript and behaves like an old-school site: real pages, ordinary links and a Back button that works.
When you find something worth keeping, bookmark the article in your browser. You can return to it whenever you like, using the tools you already know.
Article links you have visited change color using your browser’s history. There is nothing to mark as read, and Lectura does not keep a reading log.
Lectura works in the browser on your phone, tablet or computer. There is no app to download and no app store to visit. If you like, you can add a shortcut to your home screen, but it is entirely optional.
Your reading is your business
Lectura is not interested in who you are or what your attention is worth. It does not track which articles you read or when you read them. There are no analytics, and your data is not sold or shared with advertising services.
We keep only the essentials needed for your account and the sources you follow. Your alias and followed sources are visible to other signed-in readers. Your reading history stays with your browser; Lectura does not collect it.
Read exactly what Lectura stores
No ads or paid upgrades
You will not see ads on Lectura. There is nothing to buy, no premium tier and no features locked behind a payment. Lectura is here to help you find something worth reading, with no sales pitch attached.
How Lectura is built
- Java 21+ and Spring Boot run the server, with Spring Security handling sign-in and access control. The project is built with Maven.
- PostgreSQL stores feeds, articles, subscriptions and curated collections. The application uses SQL through JDBC directly, and Flyway manages database schema changes.
- Thymeleaf renders HTML pages on the server. CSS and plain JavaScript provide themes, reading preferences and features such as feed discovery and import progress.
- ROME reads RSS and Atom feeds, while jsoup helps find feed links on websites and extract readable text from HTML.
Read something you enjoy. Close the tab when you have had enough. Come back when you feel like it.