Winds vs selfoss
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted rss & news readers options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Winds | selfoss |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 68 · Good |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,092 | ★ 2,470 |
| First released | 2017 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Google Reader, Feedly |
What are Winds and selfoss?
Winds
Winds is an open-source RSS reader and podcast application with a polished interface. It can be self-hosted and offers personalized recommendations powered by activity feeds.
- RSS and podcast reader
- Polished modern interface
- Recommendation feeds
selfoss
selfoss is a multipurpose RSS reader and aggregation web application. It pulls in content from feeds, Twitter, and other sources, presenting them in a clean unified stream.
- Unified content stream
- Mobile-friendly interface
- Plugin sources beyond RSS
Winds vs selfoss: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Winds's repository is archived and no longer developed, while selfoss is actively maintained. Winds is written in JavaScript, while selfoss is built with HTML. Licensing differs — MIT for Winds versus GPL-3.0 for selfoss. Selfoss is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Winds. Selfoss is the more established project (first released 2012), while Winds arrived in 2017. Winds has the considerably larger community, at 9,092 GitHub stars versus 2,470.
Why pick each one
Choose Winds if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.1k GitHub stars
- Written in JavaScript
Choose selfoss if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.5k GitHub stars)
Frequently asked questions
Is Winds or selfoss better?
Neither is universally better. Winds has the larger community, while selfoss is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Winds and selfoss free and open-source?
Yes. Winds is licensed under MIT and selfoss under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Winds and selfoss with Docker?
Winds: yes. selfoss: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Winds or selfoss?
selfoss has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Winds. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.