Newsboat vs Reader by lemon24
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
Reader by lemon24
Self-hosted feed reader with a clean reading view
| Feature | Newsboat | Reader by lemon24 |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C++ | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 548 |
| First released | 2007 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
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 Reader by lemon24 if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or Reader by lemon24 better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while Reader by lemon24 is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and Reader by lemon24 free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and Reader by lemon24 under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and Reader by lemon24 with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. Reader by lemon24: yes.