Sift has closed.

Why

Sift was built on one idea: you pick the sources, and an algorithm you chose decides what rises — instead of a platform deciding for you. That idea still holds up.

The usage did not. For months now the reader has sat almost entirely idle, and keeping a scoring pipeline, a database and a mail sender running for a service nobody opens is not a good use of anyone's time or electricity. Closing it deliberately seemed better than letting it quietly rot.

Where to go next

All of these will take your OPML file directly:

• NetNewsWire — free and open source, Mac and iOS. No account, no server, no algorithm.
• FreshRSS — open source and self-hosted, if you would rather own the whole stack.
• Inoreader — hosted, generous free tier, the strongest filtering and rules of the bunch.
• Feedly — hosted, and the option every other tool knows how to talk to.
• Readwise Reader — paid, for feeds, newsletters and read-later in one place.

Your data

Nothing was ever sold or handed to third parties, and that does not change on the way out. Accounts, reading history and subscriptions are kept only until the export window closes, then the database is deleted.

You can ask for a full copy of your data, or for immediate deletion, at any point before then — write to hello@getsift.ch. The privacy policy stays in force until deletion is complete.

It was a good run. Thank you for trusting us with your reading.