Nextcloud News vs Yarrharr
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
Yarrharr
Self-hosted feed reader with a mobile-friendly interface
| Feature | Nextcloud News | Yarrharr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 82 · Excellent | 69 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,004 | ★ 3 |
| First released | 2012 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Nextcloud News and Yarrharr?
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
Yarrharr
Yarrharr is a self-hosted RSS and Atom feed reader written in Python and Django. It offers a clean, mobile-friendly interface for reading feeds organized into labels.
- Mobile-friendly reading
- Label-based organization
- Django-based backend
Nextcloud News vs Yarrharr: key differences
Nextcloud News is written in PHP, while Yarrharr is built with Python. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Nextcloud News versus GPL-3.0 for Yarrharr. Yarrharr is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Nextcloud News is the more established project (first released 2012), while Yarrharr arrived in 2014. Nextcloud News has the considerably larger community, at 1,004 GitHub stars versus 3.
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 Yarrharr if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Nextcloud News or Yarrharr 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 Yarrharr free and open-source?
Yes. Nextcloud News is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Yarrharr under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Nextcloud News and Yarrharr with Docker?
Nextcloud News: yes. Yarrharr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Nextcloud News or Yarrharr?
Yarrharr has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Nextcloud News. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.