NewsBlur vs RSS Monster

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?
FeatureNewsBlurRSS Monster
CategoryRSS & News ReadersRSS & News Readers
LicenseMITMIT
LanguagePythonJavaScript
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM2,048 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 7,577★ 479
First released20092020
ReplacesFeedly, Google Reader

Why pick each one

Choose NewsBlur if…

  • Smart story highlighting
  • Good mobile apps
  • Social features
NewsBlur details

Choose RSS Monster if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in JavaScript
  • Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM
RSS Monster details

Frequently asked questions

Is NewsBlur or RSS Monster better?

Neither is universally better. NewsBlur has the larger community, while RSS Monster is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are NewsBlur and RSS Monster free and open-source?

Yes. NewsBlur is licensed under MIT and RSS Monster under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run NewsBlur and RSS Monster with Docker?

NewsBlur: yes. RSS Monster: check the project docs for container support.

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