Liferea vs Tiny Tiny RSS
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Tiny Tiny RSS
Web-based news feed reader and aggregator
| Feature | Liferea | Tiny Tiny RSS |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 922 | ★ 3,000 |
| First released | 2003 | 2005 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Liferea and Tiny Tiny RSS?
Liferea
Liferea is a desktop news aggregator for online news feeds and weblogs. It supports RSS and Atom feeds, offline reading, and synchronization with services like TinyTinyRSS and TheOldReader.
- Long-standing GNOME reader
- Offline feed reading
- Sync with online services
Tiny Tiny RSS
Tiny Tiny RSS is a free and open-source web-based news feed reader and aggregator with powerful filtering and plugins. It targets power users who want a highly configurable RSS reader. It is deployed via Docker.
- Powerful filtering rules
- Plugin ecosystem
- Multi-user support
- Mobile app available
Liferea vs Tiny Tiny RSS: key differences
Liferea is written in C, while Tiny Tiny RSS is built with PHP. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Liferea versus GPL-3.0 for Tiny Tiny RSS. Liferea is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Tiny Tiny RSS. Liferea is the more established project (first released 2003), while Tiny Tiny RSS arrived in 2005. Tiny Tiny RSS has the considerably larger community, at 3,000 GitHub stars versus 922. Tiny Tiny RSS lists first-class Docker deployment; Liferea does not.
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 Tiny Tiny RSS if…
- Highly configurable
- Mature and stable
- Strong filtering
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Setup is opinionated
Frequently asked questions
Is Liferea or Tiny Tiny RSS better?
Neither is universally better. Tiny Tiny RSS has the larger community, while Liferea is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Liferea and Tiny Tiny RSS free and open-source?
Yes. Liferea is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Tiny Tiny RSS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Liferea and Tiny Tiny RSS with Docker?
Liferea: check the project docs for container support. Tiny Tiny RSS: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Liferea or Tiny Tiny RSS?
Liferea has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Tiny Tiny RSS. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.