Newsboat vs Nextcloud News
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Nextcloud News
RSS and Atom feed reader app for Nextcloud
| Feature | Newsboat | Nextcloud News |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 82 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,913 | ★ 1,004 |
| First released | 2007 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Newsboat and Nextcloud News?
Newsboat
Newsboat is an RSS and Atom feed reader for the text console. It is highly configurable, supports podcasts via podboat, and can synchronize with services like Tiny Tiny RSS and Nextcloud News.
- Highly configurable TUI
- Podcast support via podboat
- Syncs with TT-RSS and others
Nextcloud News
Nextcloud News is an RSS and Atom feed reader application that runs as a Nextcloud app. It offers a feed-reading API supported by numerous mobile and desktop client applications.
- Integrated with Nextcloud
- Open feed-reading API
- Many compatible apps
Newsboat vs Nextcloud News: key differences
Newsboat is written in C++, while Nextcloud News is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Newsboat versus AGPL-3.0 for Nextcloud News. Newsboat is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Newsboat is the more established project (first released 2007), while Nextcloud News arrived in 2012. Newsboat has the considerably larger community, at 3,913 GitHub stars versus 1,004. Nextcloud News lists first-class Docker deployment; Newsboat does not.
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 Nextcloud News if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or Nextcloud News better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Newsboat and Nextcloud News free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and Nextcloud News under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and Nextcloud News with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. Nextcloud News: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Newsboat or Nextcloud News?
Newsboat has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.