FreshRSS 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?
FreshRSS
Free, self-hostable RSS feed aggregator
VS
Newsboat
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for text consoles
| Feature | FreshRSS | Newsboat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 15,716 | ★ 3,874 |
| First released | 2013 | 2007 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Inoreader, Google Reader | Feedly |
Why pick each one
Choose FreshRSS if…
- Lightweight and fast
- Works with many mobile apps
- Actively maintained
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 FreshRSS or Newsboat better?
FreshRSS is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Newsboat if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are FreshRSS and Newsboat free and open-source?
Yes. FreshRSS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Newsboat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run FreshRSS and Newsboat with Docker?
FreshRSS: yes. Newsboat: check the project docs for container support.