Reader by lemon24 vs selfoss
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Reader by lemon24 | selfoss |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 80 · Excellent | 68 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 557 | ★ 2,470 |
| First released | 2018 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Google Reader, Feedly |
What are Reader by lemon24 and selfoss?
Reader by lemon24
reader is a Python feed reader library that can fetch, store, and manage RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds, and it ships with a basic self-hostable web app and CLI. It supports plugins, full-text search, and OPML import for building a personal feed reader.
- Feed reader library and CLI
- Bundled web application
- Full-text search
- OPML import and export
selfoss
selfoss is a multipurpose RSS reader and aggregation web application. It pulls in content from feeds, Twitter, and other sources, presenting them in a clean unified stream.
- Unified content stream
- Mobile-friendly interface
- Plugin sources beyond RSS
Reader by lemon24 vs selfoss: key differences
Reader by lemon24 is written in Python, while selfoss is built with HTML. Licensing differs — MIT for Reader by lemon24 versus GPL-3.0 for selfoss. Selfoss is the more established project (first released 2012), while Reader by lemon24 arrived in 2018. Selfoss has the considerably larger community, at 2,470 GitHub stars versus 557.
Why pick each one
Choose Reader by lemon24 if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
Choose selfoss if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Reader by lemon24 or selfoss better?
Neither is universally better. selfoss has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Reader by lemon24 and selfoss free and open-source?
Yes. Reader by lemon24 is licensed under MIT and selfoss under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Reader by lemon24 and selfoss with Docker?
Reader by lemon24: yes. selfoss: yes.