Kill the Newsletter vs yarr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
yarr
Yet another RSS reader as a single binary
| Feature | Kill the Newsletter | yarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,105 | ★ 4,049 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Kill the Newsletter and yarr?
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
yarr
yarr is a minimal, self-contained RSS and Atom feed aggregator that runs as a single binary with an embedded web UI. It targets users wanting the simplest possible feed reader. It is deployed as a binary or via Docker.
- Single self-contained binary
- Embedded web interface
- SQLite storage
- Cross-platform
Kill the Newsletter vs yarr: key differences
Kill the Newsletter is written in TypeScript, while yarr is built with Go. Yarr is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Kill the Newsletter.
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 yarr if…
- Extremely simple to run
- Tiny footprint
- No dependencies
Watch out for
- Single-user only
- Minimal feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Kill the Newsletter or yarr better?
yarr 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 yarr free and open-source?
Yes. Kill the Newsletter is licensed under MIT and yarr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kill the Newsletter and yarr with Docker?
Kill the Newsletter: yes. yarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kill the Newsletter or yarr?
yarr has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Kill the Newsletter. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.