Miniflux vs FreshRSS

Both are free, open source feed readers you can host yourself, but they lean in different directions. Miniflux is the narrower tool, credited to one developer, Frederic Guillot, under Apache 2.0, with a $15 a year hosted option and a 15-day trial for people who want no server. FreshRSS is under AGPL 3 and lists OPML, WebSub, feed generation by web scraping, saved searches and extensions. It also states a scale of over 1 million articles and 50,000 feeds. Pick Miniflux for restraint and a cheap hosted route, FreshRSS for breadth.

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Both are reviewed in full in our RSS readers ranking: Miniflux and FreshRSS.

1. 01

   A hosted route with a price tag against one you must find

   Miniflux publishes its own hosted option: $15 per year, with a 15-day trial for new accounts, signed up at billing.miniflux.app. FreshRSS says users can sign up to an existing server through cloud providers it lists, but its page gives no figures for them. For a buyer who wants no server and wants to know the cost today, Miniflux gives the clearer answer.

   Edge: Miniflux

2. 02

   Install paths and who looks after the server

   Miniflux offers a static binary, an RPM or Debian package, or a Docker image, and also a paid hosted instance. FreshRSS is described as a self-hostable aggregator whose code you download from GitHub and host yourself. Both put maintenance on you if you self-host. Miniflux lists more packaged ways to start, while FreshRSS adds a demo at demo.freshrss.org to try before installing.

   Depends on the buyer

3. 03

   What each does to the articles it fetches

   Miniflux lists removal of tracking pixels and of tracking parameters in URLs, plus automatic retrieval of full article text. These are changes to the content you read, aimed at privacy. FreshRSS lists no such cleaning on the page we read. Its distinctive tool is generating feeds from web pages by scraping, which helps with sites that publish no feed at all. The two address different problems.

   Depends on the buyer

4. 04

   Searching, importing and real-time updates

   FreshRSS names OPML import and export, WebSub for real-time updates and saved searches. Miniflux's homepage, as we read it, lists none of those by name, so we cannot say it lacks them, only that they are not claimed. For someone moving a large subscription file between readers or wanting saved queries, FreshRSS has the stronger documented list in the pages we read.

   Edge: FreshRSS

5. 05

   Phones, add-ons and the wider ecosystem

   FreshRSS says third-party mobile apps connect through its APIs and points to an extensions collection, and its page states translations into more than 15 languages. The Miniflux homepage we read names no mobile apps, extensions or language count. FreshRSS carries a downside here too: mobile reading depends on third parties rather than an app from the project itself.

   Edge: FreshRSS

6. 06

   Licence, authorship and paying the project

   Miniflux is Apache 2.0 and the page names only Frederic Guillot, with no company or country; donations through Liberapay and PayPal are optional. FreshRSS is AGPL 3, with no company or country named either. Apache 2.0 is the more permissive licence, AGPL 3 the stronger copyleft. Neither states where it is established, so neither can claim a European base from this evidence.

   Depends on the buyer

Is it possible to avoid running a server with Miniflux?

Yes. The project runs a paid hosted instance at $15 per year, with a 15-day trial for new accounts. Sign-up is through billing.miniflux.app.

Which one can turn a page without a feed into a feed?

FreshRSS, which lists feed generation by web scraping among its features. The Miniflux homepage we read does not claim that. Miniflux instead lists tracking-pixel removal and full article text retrieval.

Do I get a company contract with either project?

Not from the pages we read. Miniflux names a single developer and FreshRSS names no organisation, and neither states a country of establishment. Teams that need a named company to sign with should look elsewhere.

• Miniflux homepage: Apache 2.0, install formats, $15 yearly hosting with 15-day trial, tracking cleanup, donation options, developer credit.
• FreshRSS homepage: AGPL 3, GitHub download, demo and cloud providers, OPML and WebSub, extensions, 1 million articles and 50,000 feeds.