RSS-Bridge vs yarr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
RSS-Bridge
Generate RSS feeds for websites that lack them
VS
yarr
Yet another RSS reader as a single binary
| Feature | RSS-Bridge | yarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | ≈5-minute setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | Unlicense | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,249 | ★ 4,049 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are RSS-Bridge and yarr?
RSS-Bridge
RSS-Bridge is a PHP project capable of generating RSS and Atom feeds for websites that do not provide them. It includes hundreds of bridges for social networks, news sites, and more.
- Creates feeds for feedless sites
- Hundreds of built-in bridges
- No database required
yarr
yarr is a minimal, self-contained RSS and Atom feed aggregator that runs as a single binary with an embedded web UI. It targets users wanting the simplest possible feed reader. It is deployed as a binary or via Docker.
- Single self-contained binary
- Embedded web interface
- SQLite storage
- Cross-platform
RSS-Bridge vs yarr: key differences
RSS-Bridge is written in PHP, while yarr is built with Go. Licensing differs — Unlicense for RSS-Bridge versus MIT for yarr. Yarr is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for RSS-Bridge. RSS-Bridge is the more established project (first released 2014), while yarr arrived in 2020. RSS-Bridge has the considerably larger community, at 9,249 GitHub stars versus 4,049.
Why pick each one
Choose RSS-Bridge if…
- Released under the Unlicense license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.2k GitHub stars
Choose yarr if…
- Extremely simple to run
- Tiny footprint
- No dependencies
Watch out for
- Single-user only
- Minimal feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is RSS-Bridge or yarr better?
Neither is universally better. RSS-Bridge has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are RSS-Bridge and yarr free and open-source?
Yes. RSS-Bridge is licensed under Unlicense and yarr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run RSS-Bridge and yarr with Docker?
RSS-Bridge: yes. yarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, RSS-Bridge or yarr?
yarr has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for RSS-Bridge. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.