I've been a fairly faithful user of SharpReader ever since I started watching RSS feeds, but I have heard enough good things about RSS Bandit that I try it out now and again.

I’ve been running them both for a few days now. Here's why I'd like to switch to RSS Bandit:

• it doesn’t crash when it is left open while the computer is shutting down
• it exits when closed and hides when minimized
• it supports custom output styles – in fact, I created my own that mimics the look of SharpReader
• it remembers my preferred sort order (oldest to newest)
• it doesn’t give false taskbar notifications of new unread items like SharpReader does
• it doesn’t mistakenly mark items as changed as often as SharpReader does

I’m going to stick with SharpReader, though. Here’s why I’m uninstalling RSS Bandit (again):

• it fails to download feeds more often than SharpReader
• once a feed fails, that feed doesn't succeed again without a refresh or a restart
• it doesn't show the Author field in the list view
• double-clicking on an item doesn’t jump to its link
• it's harder to change feed properties, particularly for multiple feeds
• Alt+Space doesn’t open the System menu
• it doesn't preserve the look of the category tree between sessions
• it doesn’t refresh feeds right away on startup after it’s been closed for a while; the “force download feeds on startup” option seems like overkill
• I’m not fond of the happy face icon
• hovering over the taskbar notification icon should show the application name in addition to any other useful information

Some of those are nits, but they all add up to a less enjoyable experience for me. If it keeps improving, I'm sure I'll give it another chance down the road...