Newsboat vs Omnivore
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — 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
Omnivore
Read-it-later app with highlights and newsletter support
| Feature | Newsboat | Omnivore |
|---|---|---|
| Category | RSS & News Readers | Bookmarks & Read-It-Later |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,874 | ★ 16,211 |
| First released | 2007 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Pocket, Instapaper |
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 Omnivore if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 16.2k GitHub stars
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Newsboat or Omnivore better?
Neither is universally better. Omnivore has the larger community, while Newsboat is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Newsboat and Omnivore free and open-source?
Yes. Newsboat is licensed under MIT and Omnivore under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Newsboat and Omnivore with Docker?
Newsboat: check the project docs for container support. Omnivore: yes.