Miniflux

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 771 words

Miniflux is a single Go binary in 128 MB of RAM, and the only decision you make is accepting that it needs PostgreSQL. There is no SQLite mode and the maintainer has been clear there will not be one, so the compose file below simply includes the database. Accept that, and you get the fastest RSS reader I have run, a reading view with no JavaScript in it, and an API that every good phone app already speaks.

PostgreSQL is the entire install

services:
  miniflux:
    image: miniflux/miniflux:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgres://miniflux:secret@db/miniflux?sslmode=disable
      - RUN_MIGRATIONS=1
      - CREATE_ADMIN=1
      - ADMIN_USERNAME=admin
      - ADMIN_PASSWORD=change-me-please
    restart: unless-stopped
  db:
    image: postgres:17-alpine
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_USER=miniflux
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret
      - POSTGRES_DB=miniflux
    volumes:
      - ./db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

Port 8080 is the web UI. RUN_MIGRATIONS=1 upgrades the schema on every start and is safe to leave on; CREATE_ADMIN=1 with the two ADMIN_* variables creates the first user once, after which you should remove those three lines and rotate the password. Point the db volume somewhere your backup job already covers; a pg_dump of that one database is the complete backup, feeds, read state and all. In practice Miniflux itself sits around 30 to 60 MB resident with a few hundred feeds, so the 128 MB floor is generous.

Your phone talks Fever or Google Reader, and both are built in

Miniflux has no mobile app of its own and does not need one. Under Settings, then Integrations, enable the Fever API and the Google Reader API and give each a password. Reeder, NetNewsWire, Unread and Fluent Reader connect over one of those; Read You and FeedMe on Android do too. Read state syncs both ways, so an article marked read on the phone is gone from the desktop list on the next refresh. This is what makes a minimal web UI acceptable: the browser is where I manage feeds, the phone app is where I read.

Per-feed rules and integrations replace the plugins other readers need

Every feed's edit page has 4 fields that do the work. "Fetch original content" runs a readability extractor to pull the full article for feeds that only ship a summary; "Scraper rules" take a CSS selector when the extractor guesses wrong. "Rewrite rules" patch known-bad feeds (add_dynamic_image here, nl2br there). "Block rules" and "Keep rules" are regular expressions on title or URL, so a noisy feed can be trimmed to the 10 percent you want without learning a filter language. The same block and keep rules exist globally on your profile. Together these cover most of what FreshRSS's extension ecosystem exists to provide.

The Integrations page can also send an article to Wallabag, Readeck, Linkding, Shiori, Pinboard, Pocket, Telegram, Matrix, ntfy or Apprise with one keystroke. My pairing is Wallabag for long reads and Linkding for reference links; the point is that Miniflux stays a firehose and the keep-pile lives elsewhere. Keyboard shortcuts drive everything: j and k to move, m to toggle read, s to save, ? for the full list.

The 3 settings worth changing

POLLING_FREQUENCY defaults to 60 minutes; I run 30 on a small server without trouble. CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_READ_DAYS (default 60) keeps the database small by removing read items older than that. BASE_URL must be set to the public HTTPS address once you put it behind a proxy, or generated links and the API endpoints will be wrong. OIDC login works through OAUTH2_PROVIDER=oidc plus the usual client settings if you run Authentik or similar. Everything else can stay at its default for years.

Where FreshRSS wins

FreshRSS has a richer web UI, proper multi-user with per-user settings, extensions, and runs on SQLite or MySQL. If several people share the reader, or you read mostly in the browser and want a three-pane layout, FreshRSS is the better pick, and the FreshRSS vs Miniflux piece goes through it in detail. Miniflux does support multiple users, but it is single-purpose by design and the focus is one person reading fast.

What I'd do

Deploy the compose file above, enable both APIs, install a native reader on the phone, set POLLING_FREQUENCY=30, and never open the settings again. Back up the Postgres volume with everything else. If you are the only reader and value speed over features, this is the RSS reader to keep; read why RSS is still worth it if you need convincing to build the feed list in the first place.