Yarrharr 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 | Yarrharr | selfoss |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 69 · Good | 68 · Good |
| Category | RSS & News Readers | RSS & News Readers |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Python | HTML |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3 | ★ 2,470 |
| First released | 2014 | 2012 |
| Replaces | Feedly, Google Reader | Google Reader, Feedly |
What are Yarrharr and selfoss?
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
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
Yarrharr vs selfoss: key differences
Yarrharr is written in Python, while selfoss is built with HTML. Selfoss is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Yarrharr. Selfoss is the more established project (first released 2012), while Yarrharr arrived in 2014. Selfoss has the considerably larger community, at 2,470 GitHub stars versus 3.
Why pick each one
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
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 Yarrharr or selfoss better?
selfoss is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Yarrharr if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Yarrharr and selfoss free and open-source?
Yes. Yarrharr is licensed under GPL-3.0 and selfoss under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Yarrharr and selfoss with Docker?
Yarrharr: yes. selfoss: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Yarrharr or selfoss?
selfoss 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.