Newsboat vs QuiteRSS
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
QuiteRSS
Open-source cross-platform RSS and Atom news aggregator
| Feature | Newsboat | QuiteRSS |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 1,087 |
| First released | 2007 | 2012 |
| 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 QuiteRSS if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.1k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or QuiteRSS better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while QuiteRSS is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and QuiteRSS free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and QuiteRSS under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and QuiteRSS with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. QuiteRSS: check the project docs for container support.