Feeder vs Newsboat
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Feeder
Lightweight offline RSS reader for Android
VS
Newsboat
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for text consoles
| Feature | Feeder | Newsboat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Kotlin | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | binary | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,951 | ★ 3,874 |
| First released | 2015 | 2007 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
Why pick each one
Choose Feeder if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Kotlin
Choose Newsboat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Feeder or Newsboat better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while Feeder is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Feeder and Newsboat free and open-source?
Yes. Feeder is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Newsboat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Feeder and Newsboat with Docker?
Feeder: check the project docs for container support. Newsboat: check the project docs for container support.