Newsboat vs RSS-proxy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Newsboat | RSS-proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 20 · At risk |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,913 | ★ 1,923 |
| First released | 2007 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
What are Newsboat and RSS-proxy?
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
RSS-proxy
RSS-proxy is an open-source tool that generates RSS, Atom, or JSON feeds from websites that do not offer them, by analyzing page markup to detect article lists. It runs as a self-hosted service via Docker; its successor project is feedless.
- Creates feeds from any page
- JSON and Atom output
- Self-hosted aggregation
Newsboat vs RSS-proxy: key differences
Newsboat is written in C++, while RSS-proxy is built with TypeScript. Newsboat is the lighter option, starting around 32 MB of RAM against 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Newsboat is the more established project (first released 2007), while RSS-proxy arrived in 2019. Newsboat has the considerably larger community, at 3,913 GitHub stars versus 1,923. RSS-proxy 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 RSS-proxy if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or RSS-proxy 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 RSS-proxy free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and RSS-proxy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and RSS-proxy with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. RSS-proxy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Newsboat or RSS-proxy?
Newsboat has the smaller minimum footprint at 32 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.