Nextcloud News vs Winds
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
Winds
Archived
Beautiful open-source RSS and podcast application
| Feature | Nextcloud News | Winds |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | PHP | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,004 | ★ 9,092 |
| First released | 2012 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly |
What are Nextcloud News and Winds?
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
Winds
Winds is an open-source RSS reader and podcast application with a polished interface. It can be self-hosted and offers personalized recommendations powered by activity feeds.
- RSS and podcast reader
- Polished modern interface
- Recommendation feeds
Nextcloud News vs Winds: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Winds's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Nextcloud News is actively maintained. Nextcloud News is written in PHP, while Winds is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Nextcloud News versus MIT for Winds. Nextcloud News is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Winds. Nextcloud News is the more established project (first released 2012), while Winds arrived in 2017. Winds has the considerably larger community, at 9,092 GitHub stars versus 1,004.
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 Winds if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud News or Winds better?
Neither is universally better. Winds has the larger community, while Nextcloud News is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Nextcloud News and Winds free and open-source?
Yes. Nextcloud News is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Winds under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nextcloud News and Winds with Docker?
Nextcloud News: yes. Winds: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Nextcloud News or Winds?
Nextcloud News has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Winds. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.