Pijnhol compared with the alternatives
Pijnhol is one of several ways to keep up with a specific person, team, company or topic without checking the news all day. The others most people already know are Google Alerts, push notifications from news apps, and building your own RSS-to-SMS alert with IFTTT. Each is the right choice for someone; this page says who.
How is Pijnhol different from Google Alerts?
Google Alerts emails you new web pages that match a search phrase; Pijnhol texts you one short sentence about a story, with a link, when something actually happens for a subject you follow.
Google Alerts is free and matches keywords, so a common name or phrase brings back everything that mentions it, and the results arrive in your inbox. Pijnhol is a paid subscription that sends one message per story, never sends the same story twice, and arrives in your SMS thread instead of email.
Use Google Alerts if you want every mention of an exact phrase, you are happy reading email, or you do not want to pay. Use Pijnhol if you want to know when something happens without opening your inbox, and you would rather get a few texts than a list of links.
How is Pijnhol different from news app notifications?
News apps push the stories their editors choose to everyone who installed the app; Pijnhol only texts you about the subjects you named.
A news app's alerts cover whatever that outlet decides is important, from that one outlet, and need the app installed and its notifications on. Pijnhol needs no app, searches many publishers for your subjects, and stays silent on days when nothing happens for them.
Use a news app if you want a general front page or one outlet's coverage. Use Pijnhol if you care about a few specific things and want to hear nothing about the rest.
Can't I build this myself with IFTTT?
Partly: IFTTT can text you when an RSS feed you choose publishes an item containing a keyword, which works well if you already know the feed and the exact words to match.
IFTTT's "Send me an SMS" action is a Pro feature and, according to IFTTT's SMS service page, is capped at 100 messages a month in the US and Canada and 10 a month elsewhere, with some carriers outside the US not supported. You pick the feeds, write the keyword filters, and get one text per matching feed item, including the same story from several feeds.
Pijnhol does the searching across publishers for you, removes repeats of the same story, sends only between morning and night in your own timezone, and caps itself at 4 texts a day on Standard or 12 on Premium. Use IFTTT if you want full control over sources and are comfortable maintaining it; use Pijnhol if you want to type a subject and be done.
When is Pijnhol the wrong choice?
Pijnhol is the wrong choice if you want broad general news, every mention of a keyword, full articles inside the product, or a permanent free plan.
It covers only the subjects you name, links out to the publisher instead of hosting articles, and has a free trial of 5 alerts rather than a free tier. The full explanation, including what happens on a quiet day, is on the how it works page.
5 free alerts. No card to start.