JARR 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?
JARR
JARR (Just Another RSS Reader) is a web-based news aggregator and
VS
Newsboat
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for text consoles
| Feature | JARR | Newsboat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Python | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 129 | ★ 3,874 |
| First released | 2016 | 2007 |
| Replaces | — | Feedly |
Why pick each one
Choose JARR if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
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 JARR or Newsboat better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are JARR and Newsboat free and open-source?
Yes. JARR is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Newsboat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run JARR and Newsboat with Docker?
JARR: yes. Newsboat: check the project docs for container support.