Winds 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 | Winds | yarr |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 89 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,092 | ★ 4,049 |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Feedly | Feedly, Google Reader |
What are Winds and yarr?
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
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
Winds vs yarr: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Winds's repository is archived and no longer developed, while yarr is actively maintained. Winds is written in JavaScript, while yarr is built with Go. Yarr is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Winds. Winds is the more established project (first released 2017), while yarr arrived in 2020. Winds has the considerably larger community, at 9,092 GitHub stars versus 4,049.
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 yarr if…
- Extremely simple to run
- Tiny footprint
- No dependencies
Watch out for
- Single-user only
- Minimal feature set
Frequently asked questions
Is Winds or yarr better?
Neither is universally better. Winds has the larger community, while yarr is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Winds and yarr free and open-source?
Yes. Winds is licensed under MIT and yarr under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Winds and yarr with Docker?
Winds: yes. yarr: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Winds or yarr?
yarr has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Winds. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.