Nextcloud News vs Coldsweat
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Nextcloud News
RSS and Atom feed reader app for Nextcloud
VS
Coldsweat
Web RSS aggregator and reader with a Fever API
| Feature | Nextcloud News | Coldsweat |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 5 · At risk |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | SCSS |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | bare-metal, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,004 | ★ 146 |
| First released | 2012 | 2013 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Google Reader, Feedly |
What are Nextcloud News and Coldsweat?
Nextcloud News
Nextcloud News is an RSS and Atom feed reader application that runs as a Nextcloud app. It offers a feed-reading API supported by numerous mobile and desktop client applications.
- Integrated with Nextcloud
- Open feed-reading API
- Many compatible apps
Coldsweat
Coldsweat is a self-hosted, web-based RSS aggregator and reader designed as a Google Reader replacement. It implements the Fever API so that compatible mobile clients can connect.
- Fever API compatibility
- Works with mobile apps
- Lightweight aggregator
Nextcloud News vs Coldsweat: key differences
Nextcloud News is written in PHP, while Coldsweat is built with SCSS. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Nextcloud News versus MIT for Coldsweat. Coldsweat is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Nextcloud News has the considerably larger community, at 1,004 GitHub stars versus 146.
Why pick each one
Choose Nextcloud News if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1k GitHub stars)
- Written in PHP
Choose Coldsweat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in SCSS
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud News or Coldsweat better?
Neither is universally better. Nextcloud News has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Nextcloud News and Coldsweat free and open-source?
Yes. Nextcloud News is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Coldsweat under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nextcloud News and Coldsweat with Docker?
Nextcloud News: yes. Coldsweat: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Nextcloud News or Coldsweat?
Coldsweat has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.