Miniflux vs RSS-proxy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Miniflux
Minimalist and opinionated RSS feed reader
VS
RSS-proxy
Turn any website into an RSS, Atom, or JSON feed
| Feature | Miniflux | RSS-proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 20 · At risk |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,729 | ★ 1,923 |
| First released | 2014 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Inoreader | Feedly |
What are Miniflux and RSS-proxy?
Miniflux
Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader focused on speed, simplicity, and a distraction-free reading experience. It targets users who want a no-nonsense RSS reader. It is deployed via Docker or a binary.
- Minimal distraction-free reading
- Single-binary deployment
- Compatible APIs for mobile apps
- Keyboard-driven interface
RSS-proxy
RSS-proxy is an open-source tool that generates RSS, Atom, or JSON feeds from websites that do not offer them, by analyzing page markup to detect article lists. It runs as a self-hosted service via Docker; its successor project is feedless.
- Creates feeds from any page
- JSON and Atom output
- Self-hosted aggregation
Miniflux vs RSS-proxy: key differences
Miniflux is written in Go, while RSS-proxy is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Miniflux versus MIT for RSS-proxy. Miniflux is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Miniflux is the more established project (first released 2014), while RSS-proxy arrived in 2019. Miniflux has the considerably larger community, at 9,729 GitHub stars versus 1,923.
Why pick each one
Choose Miniflux if…
- Very fast and lightweight
- Easy to deploy
- Clean reading experience
Watch out for
- Requires PostgreSQL
- Intentionally minimal features
Choose RSS-proxy if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Miniflux or RSS-proxy better?
Miniflux is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider RSS-proxy if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Miniflux and RSS-proxy free and open-source?
Yes. Miniflux is licensed under Apache-2.0 and RSS-proxy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Miniflux and RSS-proxy with Docker?
Miniflux: yes. RSS-proxy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Miniflux or RSS-proxy?
Miniflux has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.