Coldsweat vs Yarrharr
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 | Yarrharr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 5 · At risk | 69 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-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 | ★ 3 |
| First released | 2013 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Google Reader, Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Coldsweat and Yarrharr?
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
Yarrharr
Yarrharr is a self-hosted RSS and Atom feed reader written in Python and Django. It offers a clean, mobile-friendly interface for reading feeds organized into labels.
- Mobile-friendly reading
- Label-based organization
- Django-based backend
Coldsweat vs Yarrharr: key differences
Coldsweat is written in SCSS, while Yarrharr is built with Python. Licensing differs — MIT for Coldsweat versus GPL-3.0 for Yarrharr. Coldsweat is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Yarrharr. Coldsweat has the considerably larger community, at 146 GitHub stars versus 3.
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 Yarrharr if…
- Released under the GPL-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 Yarrharr 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 Yarrharr free and open-source?
Yes. Coldsweat is licensed under MIT and Yarrharr under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Coldsweat and Yarrharr with Docker?
Coldsweat: yes. Yarrharr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Coldsweat or Yarrharr?
Coldsweat has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Yarrharr. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.