A new chapter for Serial

A note about subscriptions

Starting today (May 5th, 2026), Serial will begin to offer paid plans on the primary instance. This is a decision made with the goal of of being able to sustainably create open-source software that is built to last, and will help to support both current costs and future development.

The new pricing was chosen to support all kinds of people, from those who just want a nice interface for a few feeds to users who want a single app for all their web content. The pricing is designed to give more price flexibility than many RSS readers on the market, and should be an especially good middle ground for those who are not "RSS power users" but still want the benefits of a well-supported and designed reader.

This pricing only applies to the main instance; self-hosted instances will always be free to run. I'll be writing additional guides on data export and self-hosting throughout the month to make sure this is a real option for all kinds of people, not just those who are technical or self-hosting hobbyists. If you'd like to try this today, you can follow the existing step-by-step guide here.

Even if you don't upgrade today, your current feeds will stay active through (at least) June 1st. If you have any questions at all, don't hestiate to reach out. I know it's a tough time for many right now, and I never want ability to pay to be the reason someone can't use Serial.

As a thank you for being here along the way, you can use the code THANKYOUBETA to get 50% off any plan (monthly or annual) for the first year. You'll be able to use this code up until extra active feeds are flipped off on June 1st.

Here's to the next chapter of Serial!

• Henry

Improvements

Progress towards a more "local-first" experience

Serial now caches local data on desktop and PWA (progressive web app) installations. Initial loads should feel much snappier, especially when going to read or watch previously added items.

Feed data caching

Feeds are now cached in the user's KV store of choice up until that feed's ttl. In practicality, this means that popular and recently fetched feeds will be retreived faster when fetched again by someone else.

Background feed streaming

For users that have feeds that refresh in the background, Serial will stream new data in to the application automatically when the app is open. Tip: hover over the refresh button to get the time until your next feed data refresh!

Invite link improvements

Invite links can now be named Invite links can now be edited after creation

Fixes

Fixed an issue where .opml files sometimes would not be uploadable on mobile Fixed an issue where feed items posted at the same time would switch with each other rapidly on the page Updated database indexes to improve certain performance issues

Changes

Moved /blog to /guides Updated landing page with updated screenshots and pricing info Added pricing page

Updates for self-hosters

BREAKING: Serial now requires VITE_PUBLIC_BASE_URL to be set for each deployment. This is the url that is used for features like user invites and other essential functionality. Added a new VITE_PUBLIC_IS_MAINTENANCE_MODE environment variable, useful for shutting off application access while performing database maintenance or other tasks.