Liferea 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.
Not the right match-up?
Liferea
Linux Feed Reader for the GNOME desktop
VS
Miniflux
Minimalist and opinionated RSS feed reader
| Feature | Liferea | Miniflux |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | C | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 912 | ★ 9,561 |
| First released | 2003 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly, Inoreader |
Why pick each one
Choose Liferea if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Liferea or Miniflux better?
Neither is universally better. Miniflux has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Liferea and Miniflux free and open-source?
Yes. Liferea is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Miniflux under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Liferea and Miniflux with Docker?
Liferea: check the project docs for container support. Miniflux: yes.