Coldsweat vs Newspipe
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Coldsweat | Newspipe |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 5 · At risk | 0 · At risk |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | SCSS | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 146 | ★ 7 |
| First released | 2013 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Google Reader, Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Coldsweat and Newspipe?
Coldsweat
Coldsweat is a self-hosted, web-based RSS aggregator and reader designed as a Google Reader replacement. It implements the Fever API so that compatible mobile clients can connect.
- Fever API compatibility
- Works with mobile apps
- Lightweight aggregator
Newspipe
Newspipe is a web-based news aggregator that lets you follow RSS and Atom feeds in a clean interface. It supports per-user feed lists, full-text search, and email notifications.
- Multi-user feed aggregation
- Full-text search
- Email notifications
Coldsweat vs Newspipe: key differences
Coldsweat is written in SCSS, while Newspipe is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Coldsweat versus AGPL-3.0 for Newspipe. Coldsweat is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Newspipe. Newspipe is the more established project (first released 2010), while Coldsweat arrived in 2013. Coldsweat has the considerably larger community, at 146 GitHub stars versus 7.
Why pick each one
Choose Coldsweat if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in SCSS
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Choose Newspipe if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Coldsweat or Newspipe better?
Neither is universally better. Coldsweat has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Coldsweat and Newspipe free and open-source?
Yes. Coldsweat is licensed under MIT and Newspipe under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coldsweat and Newspipe with Docker?
Coldsweat: yes. Newspipe: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Coldsweat or Newspipe?
Coldsweat has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Newspipe. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.