RSS Guard vs RSS-proxy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | RSS Guard | RSS-proxy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 20 · At risk |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | C++ | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,761 | ★ 1,923 |
| First released | 2013 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly |
What are RSS Guard and RSS-proxy?
RSS Guard
RSS Guard is a simple but powerful desktop feed reader supporting RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds. It synchronizes with Tiny Tiny RSS, Nextcloud News, FreshRSS, Google Reader API, and more.
- Supports many sync backends
- RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds
- Cross-platform Qt app
RSS-proxy
RSS-proxy is an open-source tool that generates RSS, Atom, or JSON feeds from websites that do not offer them, by analyzing page markup to detect article lists. It runs as a self-hosted service via Docker; its successor project is feedless.
- Creates feeds from any page
- JSON and Atom output
- Self-hosted aggregation
RSS Guard vs RSS-proxy: key differences
RSS Guard is written in C++, while RSS-proxy is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for RSS Guard versus MIT for RSS-proxy. RSS Guard is the more established project (first released 2013), while RSS-proxy arrived in 2019. RSS-proxy lists first-class Docker deployment; RSS Guard does not.
Why pick each one
Choose RSS Guard if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (2.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in C++
Choose RSS-proxy if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.9k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is RSS Guard or RSS-proxy better?
RSS Guard is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider RSS-proxy if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are RSS Guard and RSS-proxy free and open-source?
Yes. RSS Guard is licensed under GPL-3.0 and RSS-proxy under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run RSS Guard and RSS-proxy with Docker?
RSS Guard: check the project docs for container support. RSS-proxy: yes.