Newsboat vs Readrops
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
Readrops
Android RSS reader that syncs with self-hosted services
| Feature | Newsboat | Readrops |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Kotlin |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 572 |
| First released | 2007 | 2019 |
| 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 Readrops if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Kotlin
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or Readrops better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while Readrops is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and Readrops free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and Readrops under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and Readrops with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. Readrops: check the project docs for container support.