NewsGator Online allows users to configure Locations, which represent an installation of an application that uses NewsGator Online. For instance, a user may configure "home" and "work" locations along with the default "NewsGator Online" location. Subscriptions can be made specific to one or more locations, so that a user can have subscriptions that are read only at work, subscriptions that are read only at home, subscriptions that are read only in the NewsGator Online, and subscriptions that are read only in all three places.

NewsGator Online allows users to create a folder structure to organize subscriptions in a hierarchical structure. This folder structure is shared by all NewsGator Online Locations, so that a user can see the same hierarchy in every location. User agents are not required to use the NewsGator Online folder structure, though it's a desirable feature.

Subscriptions are the core of what a News Aggregator manages. In NewsGator Online, subscriptions are managed with respect to a Location; each Location has a subscription list that may or may not be distinct from a user's other Location's subscription lists.

NewsGator Online provides Feeds as an RSS 2.0 representation of individual RSS feeds. NewsGator Online feeds contain extensions to the RSS 2.0 specification that are used to convey information about the state of the individual items in a feed ("Posts"); i.e. read and deleted states, NewsGator Online ratings, etc.

NewsGator Online provides certain information specific to individual posts, such as a count of links linking to a given post, or a list of the full URLs of the posts linked to a given post. The NewsGator Online API provides a way to manage user-specific information for individual posts; for example, ratings, and read / deleted states.