Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Text News is a news service accessible only through Gopher protocol, delivering content in plain text format. Launched in 2019, it provides a readable alternative to modern web-based news platforms. The service is… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Text News, Gopher only, text only, readable news launched in 2019; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   CNN Lite▲206

   Text-only CNN, for mobile limited coverage

   2017 · its alternatives →

2. 2
   Unfiltered.news▲335

   What the world is talking about, visualized graphically

   2016 · its alternatives →

3. 3
   TLDR 2.0 ▲187

   Bitesized, customizable news via a chrome extension

   2015 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   I ranked news websites by speed▲320

   I've been working on building "the fastest news website" for a few reasons: 1. I got tired of waiting for news websites to load, so I made a text-only news website that only has major news headlines. 2. I wanted to demonstrate to the world that if you want to build something really fast on the web, you can do it without loads of JavaScript. 3. I wanted to show that you can design something that looks good without having tons of images, etc. I put together the speed page at https://legiblenews.com/speed to hold my website to be more accountable for speed, but it's also…

   2022 · legiblenews.com · its alternatives →

5. 5AN
   A New Tool to Understand and Visualize the News▲90

   2019 · newsphere.org · its alternatives →

6. 6
   The New Paper Text▲94

   Fact-first news delivered once a day by text (yes, text)

   2020 · thenewpaper.co · its alternatives →

7. 7
   News API▲252

   Get live headlines from a range of news sources

   2016 · newsapi.org · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Newsly 2.0▲216

   Reads top trending news & articles in a natural human voice

   2021 · newsly.me · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Slack-News▲116

   Read news from multiple sources within Slack by just typing

   2015 · github.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    News Line▲136

    India's most consumable form of news

    2021 · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Tiny Text▲70

    A weekly article sent via sms, on topics of your choice

    2019 · its alternatives →

12. 12TI
    Textnet.io – The Internet of Text▲14

    2017 · textnet.io · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Pilot Reader▲94

    The easiest way to read tech news

    2014 · its alternatives →

14. 14
    Post News▲95

    Everything you love about social media without the trolls

    2023 · its alternatives →

15. 15
    Morning Person News▲76

    New tab with top headlines from multiple sources

    2019 · chromewebstore.google.com · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Legible News▲78

    News that makes you smarter, no ads, no bloat, not breaking

    2022 · legiblenews.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    Playtext▲108

    Turn articles into audiobooks & read 2x faster!

    2023 · playtext.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    News Social▲85

    Connects people in discussions on global news topics

    2023 · apps.apple.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Textedly▲100

    SMS marketing services made easy

    2018 · textedly.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    NewsTab▲88

    A single place to read and share the news you care about.

    2016 · its alternatives →

21. 21ET
    Eat the News – A text extraction playground for global RSS feeds▲25

    2020 · extractarticletext.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    A simple Google news reader for the Gopher protocol▲6

    2022 · gitlab.com · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Legible News Inbox▲11

    Essential news headlines emailed to you daily or weekly

    2024 · legiblenews.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    textynews▲9

    news aggregator and analytics app

    2025 · textynews.us · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →