Liferea vs Coldsweat
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
Coldsweat
Web RSS aggregator and reader with a Fever API
| Feature | Liferea | Coldsweat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | SCSS |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 912 | ★ 146 |
| First released | 2003 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Google Reader, Feedly |
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
Choose Coldsweat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in SCSS
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Liferea or Coldsweat better?
Liferea is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Coldsweat if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Liferea and Coldsweat free and open-source?
Yes. Liferea is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Coldsweat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Liferea and Coldsweat with Docker?
Liferea: check the project docs for container support. Coldsweat: yes.