Kill the Newsletter vs NewsBlur
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
NewsBlur
Personal news reader with training and sharing
| Feature | Kill the Newsletter | NewsBlur |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 91 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 2,048 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,105 | ★ 7,627 |
| First released | 2020 | 2009 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Kill the Newsletter and NewsBlur?
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
NewsBlur
NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings together feeds with intelligent training to highlight stories you care about. It targets readers who want a smart, social feed reader. It is deployed via Docker Compose.
- Story training and filtering
- Social sharing of stories
- Original site view
- Mobile apps
Kill the Newsletter vs NewsBlur: key differences
Kill the Newsletter is written in TypeScript, while NewsBlur is built with Python. Kill the Newsletter is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. NewsBlur is the more established project (first released 2009), while Kill the Newsletter arrived in 2020. NewsBlur has the considerably larger community, at 7,627 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 NewsBlur if…
- Smart story highlighting
- Good mobile apps
- Social features
Watch out for
- Complex multi-service stack
- Heavy to self-host
Frequently asked questions
Is Kill the Newsletter or NewsBlur better?
Neither is universally better. NewsBlur has the larger community, while Kill the Newsletter is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kill the Newsletter and NewsBlur free and open-source?
Yes. Kill the Newsletter is licensed under MIT and NewsBlur under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kill the Newsletter and NewsBlur with Docker?
Kill the Newsletter: yes. NewsBlur: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kill the Newsletter or NewsBlur?
Kill the Newsletter has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.