Newsboat vs NewsFlash
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?
Newsboat
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader for text consoles
VS
NewsFlash
Desktop feed reader and spiritual successor to FeedReader
| Feature | Newsboat | NewsFlash |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 900 |
| First released | 2007 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
Why pick each one
Choose Newsboat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Active community (3.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 32 MB RAM
Choose NewsFlash if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or NewsFlash better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while NewsFlash is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and NewsFlash free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and NewsFlash under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and NewsFlash with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. NewsFlash: check the project docs for container support.