Newsboat vs Russ
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
Russ
Terminal RSS and Atom feed reader
| Feature | Newsboat | Russ |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | C++ | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 268 |
| First released | 2007 | 2021 |
| 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 Russ if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in Rust
- Tiny footprint — runs in 64 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or Russ better?
Neither is universally better. Newsboat has the larger community, while Russ is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and Russ free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and Russ under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and Russ with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. Russ: check the project docs for container support.