RSS-proxy 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.
yarr
Yet another RSS reader as a single binary
| Feature | RSS-proxy | yarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 20 · At risk | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,923 | ★ 4,049 |
| First released | 2019 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are RSS-proxy and yarr?
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
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-proxy vs yarr: key differences
RSS-proxy is written in TypeScript, while yarr is built with Go. Yarr is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Yarr has the considerably larger community, at 4,049 GitHub stars versus 1,923.
Why pick each one
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
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-proxy or yarr better?
yarr 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-proxy and yarr free and open-source?
Yes. RSS-proxy is licensed under MIT and yarr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run RSS-proxy and yarr with Docker?
RSS-proxy: yes. yarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, RSS-proxy or yarr?
yarr has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for RSS-proxy. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.