Kill the Newsletter vs Winds
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 | Winds |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,105 | ★ 9,092 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
What are Kill the Newsletter and Winds?
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
Winds
Winds is an open-source RSS reader and podcast application with a polished interface. It can be self-hosted and offers personalized recommendations powered by activity feeds.
- RSS and podcast reader
- Polished modern interface
- Recommendation feeds
Kill the Newsletter vs Winds: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Winds's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Kill the Newsletter is actively maintained. Kill the Newsletter is written in TypeScript, while Winds is built with JavaScript. Kill the Newsletter is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Winds. Winds is the more established project (first released 2017), while Kill the Newsletter arrived in 2020. Winds has the considerably larger community, at 9,092 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 Winds if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Kill the Newsletter or Winds better?
Neither is universally better. Winds 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 Winds free and open-source?
Yes. Kill the Newsletter is licensed under MIT and Winds under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kill the Newsletter and Winds with Docker?
Kill the Newsletter: yes. Winds: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kill the Newsletter or Winds?
Kill the Newsletter has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Winds. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.