Newsraft vs Newsboat
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?
Newsraft
Feature-rich terminal RSS and Atom feed reader
VS
Newsboat
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for text consoles
| Feature | Newsraft | Newsboat |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 32 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 300 | ★ 3,874 |
| First released | 2022 | 2007 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
Why pick each one
Choose Newsraft if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Choose Newsboat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsraft or Newsboat better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Newsraft and Newsboat free and open-source?
Yes. Newsraft is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Newsboat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsraft and Newsboat with Docker?
Newsraft: check the project docs for container support. Newsboat: check the project docs for container support.