Kill the Newsletter vs RSS Guard
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Kill the Newsletter | RSS Guard |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,105 | ★ 2,761 |
| First released | 2020 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
What are Kill the Newsletter and RSS Guard?
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
RSS Guard
RSS Guard is a simple but powerful desktop feed reader supporting RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds. It synchronizes with Tiny Tiny RSS, Nextcloud News, FreshRSS, Google Reader API, and more.
- Supports many sync backends
- RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds
- Cross-platform Qt app
Kill the Newsletter vs RSS Guard: key differences
Kill the Newsletter is written in TypeScript, while RSS Guard is built with C++. Licensing differs — MIT for Kill the Newsletter versus GPL-3.0 for RSS Guard. Kill the Newsletter is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for RSS Guard. RSS Guard is the more established project (first released 2013), while Kill the Newsletter arrived in 2020. Kill the Newsletter lists first-class Docker deployment; RSS Guard does not.
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 RSS Guard if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Kill the Newsletter or RSS Guard better?
Neither is universally better. Kill the Newsletter has the larger community, while RSS Guard is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kill the Newsletter and RSS Guard free and open-source?
Yes. Kill the Newsletter is licensed under MIT and RSS Guard under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kill the Newsletter and RSS Guard with Docker?
Kill the Newsletter: yes. RSS Guard: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Kill the Newsletter or RSS Guard?
Kill the Newsletter has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for RSS Guard. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.