NewsBlur vs yarr
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
yarr
Yet another RSS reader as a single binary
| Feature | NewsBlur | yarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 91 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 2,048 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7,627 | ★ 4,049 |
| First released | 2009 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are NewsBlur and yarr?
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
yarr
yarr is a minimal, self-contained RSS and Atom feed aggregator that runs as a single binary with an embedded web UI. It targets users wanting the simplest possible feed reader. It is deployed as a binary or via Docker.
- Single self-contained binary
- Embedded web interface
- SQLite storage
- Cross-platform
NewsBlur vs yarr: key differences
NewsBlur is written in Python, while yarr is built with Go. Yarr is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. NewsBlur is the more established project (first released 2009), while yarr arrived in 2020.
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 yarr if…
- Extremely simple to run
- Tiny footprint
- No dependencies
Watch out for
- Single-user only
- Minimal feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is NewsBlur or yarr better?
Neither is universally better. NewsBlur has the larger community, while yarr is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are NewsBlur and yarr free and open-source?
Yes. NewsBlur is licensed under MIT and yarr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run NewsBlur and yarr with Docker?
NewsBlur: yes. yarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, NewsBlur or yarr?
yarr has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 2,048 MB for NewsBlur. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.