SHSelfHostIndex

FreshRSS vs Yarrharr

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 YA Yarrharr Self-hosted feed reader with a mobile-friendly interface
FeatureFreshRSSYarrharr
Deploy effort≈5-minute setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score95 · Excellent69 · Good
CategoryRSS & News ReadersRSS & News Readers
LicenseAGPL-3.0GPL-3.0
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 16,126★ 3
First released20132014
ReplacesFeedly, Inoreader, Google ReaderFeedly, Google Reader

What are FreshRSS and Yarrharr?

FreshRSS

FreshRSS is a free, self-hostable RSS and Atom feed aggregator that is fast, lightweight, and highly customizable. It targets users who want full control over their news reading. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.

  • Fast feed aggregation
  • Multi-user support
  • Mobile app API compatibility
  • Extensions and themes

Read the full FreshRSS guide →

Yarrharr

Yarrharr is a self-hosted RSS and Atom feed reader written in Python and Django. It offers a clean, mobile-friendly interface for reading feeds organized into labels.

  • Mobile-friendly reading
  • Label-based organization
  • Django-based backend

FreshRSS vs Yarrharr: key differences

FreshRSS is written in PHP, while Yarrharr is built with Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for FreshRSS versus GPL-3.0 for Yarrharr. FreshRSS has the considerably larger community, at 16,126 GitHub stars versus 3.

Why pick each one

Choose FreshRSS if…

  • Lightweight and fast
  • Works with many mobile apps
  • Actively maintained

Watch out for

  • Requires a database
  • Interface is functional, not flashy
FreshRSS details

Choose Yarrharr if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Yarrharr details

Frequently asked questions

Is FreshRSS or Yarrharr better?

FreshRSS is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Yarrharr if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are FreshRSS and Yarrharr free and open-source?

Yes. FreshRSS is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Yarrharr under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run FreshRSS and Yarrharr with Docker?

FreshRSS: yes. Yarrharr: yes.

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