Miniflux vs selfoss
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
selfoss
Multipurpose RSS reader and web scraping aggregator
| Feature | Miniflux | selfoss |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 68 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,729 | ★ 2,470 |
| First released | 2014 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Inoreader | Google Reader, Feedly |
What are Miniflux and selfoss?
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
selfoss
selfoss is a multipurpose RSS reader and aggregation web application. It pulls in content from feeds, Twitter, and other sources, presenting them in a clean unified stream.
- Unified content stream
- Mobile-friendly interface
- Plugin sources beyond RSS
Miniflux vs selfoss: key differences
Miniflux is written in Go, while selfoss is built with HTML. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Miniflux versus GPL-3.0 for selfoss. Selfoss is the more established project (first released 2012), while Miniflux arrived in 2014. Miniflux has the considerably larger community, at 9,729 GitHub stars versus 2,470.
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 selfoss if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Miniflux or selfoss 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 Miniflux and selfoss free and open-source?
Yes. Miniflux is licensed under Apache-2.0 and selfoss under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Miniflux and selfoss with Docker?
Miniflux: yes. selfoss: yes.