Best Usenet Newsreader clients of 2024

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Best Newsgroup Client Software

Below you’ll find a list of our top five newsgroup newsreaders. We have a comprehensive list of newsreaders just below our top recommendations, but our five top picks should meet most everyone’s needs, whether you’re a power user or a complete novice.

If you are a newcomer to USENET, scroll below the listings to read more about how news readers work. Keep in mind that many of our Top Five USENET Providers for 2024 offer their own software and, if that’s the case, you always have the option of going with their included software instead of downloading a different newsreader to use their service.

Newshosting

Newshosting offers their own newsreader as part of their service, and it’s our top all-around pick for newsreaders. It’s fast, easy to use, and, if you subscribe to the associated USENET service, you’ll get a great search feature. It’s sort of an all-in-one piece of software that really increases the value of Newshosting’s service.

Finding binaries is easy on this newsreader and, once you do find what you’re looking for, you’ll see the real power of Newshosting’s newsreader. You can preview files before you download them and, when you do download them, the newsreader handles all the file unpacking and repair functions automatically. Hands down, this is a great newsreader, and just one of the reasons we’re so fond of Newshosting’s service.

NZBGet

NZBGet is a great newsreader for several reasons. One of the most significant of those reasons is that this program is written in C++. If you’re not sure what that means, it simply means that, Windows, Mac, or Unix, NZBGet will work with your system. That kind of flexibility is rare in any type of software, but NZBGet gets even better.

NZBGet is fast; very fast. It can also download binaries for you automatically, which is another reason to give this great program a try. Like our other top choices, NZBGet is great for beginners and power users alike. It’s powerful enough to handle complex jobs like serving as a media server, and it automatically handles files that you download, making it that much easier for novices to enjoy the content they download without any hassles.

Newsbin

Newsbin is something of a legend among USENET newsreaders. It’s been around for many years and that’s reflected in the sophistication of the program. This program only works on Windows, which is a bit limiting, but there’s really nothing else about it that could be described as limited.This is a powerful program for power users, and it does just about everything you can imagine, from searching, to downloading, to unpacking and repairing files. The interface might be a bit intimidating for beginners, but it’s really a snap to use once you get the hang of it.

The Newsbin search service is subscription based, but well-worth the price, particularly if your USENET service doesn’t offer one of their own.

Newsleecher

Newsleecher is another newsreader that’s been around for a long time; about a decade now. It’s powerful, has a decent USENET search feature integrated with it, and it offers plenty of flexibility. It’s surprisingly easy to use, given how powerful it is, particularly if you get the Newsleecher USENET service. In that case, it’s preconfigured and all you have to do is fire it up and start searching.

Like Newsbin, this program only works on the Windows platform. Nonetheless, it’s features and, in particular, it’s ease of use, merit its inclusion on this list.

SABnzbd

Easily as well-known as Newsbin and as flexible as NZBGet, SABnzbd is another great newsreader. It’s really focused on downloads, so you might not, at first blush, think it’s as feature rich as the more sophisticated newsreaders on this list, but that’s not true. SABnzbd’s strength is in how easily it can be integrated with other downloaders, such as Sonarr. Like Newsbin, SABnzbd has a pretty steep learning curve, but it’s well-worth the effort.

SABnzbd will run on any system that supports the Python programming language, so, no matter what OS you’re running on your desktop, SABnzbd is likely to be compatible with it. If you want to integrate your downloader with other sites so you can automatically download binaries when they become available, this is a great choice and we highly recommend it!

How We Rank Newsreaders

We look at several different criteria when we rank newsreaders and, in the interest of being transparent with our readers, here they are.

• Price: We take price into account. Many newsreaders are open-source projects, so they’re completely free. Some come with USENET services and are value-added products in that regard. Others, like Newsbin, do cost money, but are worth it if they made this list. Some good newsreaders that come included with USENET subscriptions include Newshosting, as listed above, and Easynews.

• Search Capabilities: This is an important feature, and good search capabilities go a long way with us in determining whether a newsreader belongs on our list of top choices or not. Newshosting and Newsleecher are particularly good in this regard.

• OS Compatibility: We like products that are flexible, so you’ll see more than one entry on this list that’s notable for its cross-platform operability. NZBGet and SABnzbd are the standouts in OS compatibility.

• Multiple News Services: We like to give our readers choices, and we take that into account when ranking newsreaders. Those newsreaders that allow you to connect to any service are likely to rank highly on our list, as reflected in our choices above.

• Integration: One of the best things about USENET is the sheer number of programs available that help you get the most out of it. Couchpotato and Sonarr are good examples of such programs. All of our top five picks listed above have some level of interoperability with popular downloaders.

• Headers Compatibility: We take this into account because not all newsreaders allow you to download headers, and it’s a valuable feature for some of our users. That being said, some programs, such as NZBGet and SABnzbd don’t offer this feature, but are still great programs, nonetheless.

• Ease of Use: Our top five newsreaders are all easy to use, and we think it’s important to consider that when ranking newsreaders in general. Newshosting is a standout for ease of use. Easynews doesn’t appear on our list, but we highly recommend it for people who want a more web-based experience.

• SSL Connections: Security matters. SSL connections are pretty standard these days, and we like to make sure we recommend newsreaders that are compatible with this important privacy feature.

• Additional Automation Features: USENET is very automated these days and we want our readers to be able to take advantage of that. To that end, we tend to recommend newsreaders that handle everything, from downloading binaries, to unpacking them, to repairing them if need be.

• NZB Import: Not all newsreaders work with NZB files, and we like to recommend the ones that do, because NZB files really make USENET a lot more convenient. NZBs haven’t been around as long as some of these newsreaders, but all of our top recommendations support them.

Name	Win	Mac	Linux	Headers	Price
					Free w/ service
					$20/yr
					$3.99/mo
					Free
					Free
					Free
					Free
					Optional donation
					Free
					Free
					$9.99
					Free
					free
					$12.50/yr
					Free
					Free
					$14.95
					Free
					Free
					$59.95/yr
					Free
					Free
					Depends on the Usenet provider
					$16.85/mo
					Free
					$35
					$49.95
					Free
					$25.00
					$29.95
					free
					free
					free
					free
					free
					free
					$18.00
					free
					free
					Free
					$29 for new registrants, discounts available
					$3.99
					$36.00
					free
					free
					€29.98
					$6.95