NewsBlur vs Yarrharr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
NewsBlur
Personal news reader with training and sharing
VS
Yarrharr
Self-hosted feed reader with a mobile-friendly interface
| Feature | NewsBlur | Yarrharr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 69 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,627 | ★ 3 |
| First released | 2009 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are NewsBlur and Yarrharr?
NewsBlur
NewsBlur is a personal news reader that brings together feeds with intelligent training to highlight stories you care about. It targets readers who want a smart, social feed reader. It is deployed via Docker Compose.
- Story training and filtering
- Social sharing of stories
- Original site view
- Mobile apps
Yarrharr
Yarrharr is a self-hosted RSS and Atom feed reader written in Python and Django. It offers a clean, mobile-friendly interface for reading feeds organized into labels.
- Mobile-friendly reading
- Label-based organization
- Django-based backend
NewsBlur vs Yarrharr: key differences
Both projects are written in Python. Licensing differs — MIT for NewsBlur versus GPL-3.0 for Yarrharr. Yarrharr is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. NewsBlur is the more established project (first released 2009), while Yarrharr arrived in 2014. NewsBlur has the considerably larger community, at 7,627 GitHub stars versus 3.
Why pick each one
Choose NewsBlur if…
- Smart story highlighting
- Good mobile apps
- Social features
Watch out for
- Complex multi-service stack
- Heavy to self-host
Choose Yarrharr if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is NewsBlur or Yarrharr better?
Neither is universally better. NewsBlur has the larger community, while Yarrharr is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are NewsBlur and Yarrharr free and open-source?
Yes. NewsBlur is licensed under MIT and Yarrharr under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NewsBlur and Yarrharr with Docker?
NewsBlur: yes. Yarrharr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, NewsBlur or Yarrharr?
Yarrharr has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.