Kill the Newsletter vs Miniflux
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Miniflux
Minimalist and opinionated RSS feed reader
| Feature | Kill the Newsletter | Miniflux |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | ≈5-minute setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,105 | ★ 9,729 |
| First released | 2020 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Inoreader |
What are Kill the Newsletter and Miniflux?
Kill the Newsletter
Kill the Newsletter is a self-hostable service that gives you an email address whose incoming messages are turned into an RSS feed. It lets you read email newsletters in your feed reader instead of your inbox.
- Newsletters to RSS
- Disposable feed addresses
- Self-contained mail handling
- Lightweight
Miniflux
Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader focused on speed, simplicity, and a distraction-free reading experience. It targets users who want a no-nonsense RSS reader. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Minimal distraction-free reading
- Single-binary deployment
- Compatible APIs for mobile apps
- Keyboard-driven interface
Kill the Newsletter vs Miniflux: key differences
Kill the Newsletter is written in TypeScript, while Miniflux is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Kill the Newsletter versus Apache-2.0 for Miniflux. Miniflux is the more established project (first released 2014), while Kill the Newsletter arrived in 2020. Miniflux has the considerably larger community, at 9,729 GitHub stars versus 3,105.
Why pick each one
Choose Kill the Newsletter if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Watch out for
- Needs inbound mail config
- Per-newsletter feed setup
Choose Miniflux if…
- Very fast and lightweight
- Easy to deploy
- Clean reading experience
Watch out for
- Requires PostgreSQL
- Intentionally minimal features
Frequently asked questions
Is Kill the Newsletter or Miniflux better?
Miniflux is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Kill the Newsletter if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Kill the Newsletter and Miniflux free and open-source?
Yes. Kill the Newsletter is licensed under MIT and Miniflux under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kill the Newsletter and Miniflux with Docker?
Kill the Newsletter: yes. Miniflux: yes.