A feature-by-feature comparison of NewsBlur, FreshRSS, Miniflux, and Tiny Tiny RSS. All are open source, but only one offers a fully hosted service alongside self-hosting.
| Feature | NewsBlur | FreshRSS | Miniflux | Tiny Tiny RSS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted Service | ✓ newsblur.com | ✗ Self-host only | ✗ Self-host only | ✗ Self-host only |
| Self-Hosted Option | ✓ Docker one-command install | ✓ Docker or manual | ✓ Docker or binary | ✓ Docker or manual |
| Native Mobile Apps | ✓ iOS & Android | ✗ Third-party only | ✗ Third-party only | ✗ Third-party only |
| Intelligence Training | ✓ Train by author, tag, title, text, URL, regex | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Label-based filters |
| Ask AI (Query Stories) | ✓ Claude, GPT, Gemini, Grok | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Full-Text Search | ✓ Elasticsearch-powered | ✓ Database search | ✓ PostgreSQL search | ✓ Database search |
| Social Features | ✓ Public blurblog, comments, sharing | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ Shared articles |
| Email Newsletters | ✓ Forward to NewsBlur | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Web Feeds (Any Website) | ✓ Follow sites without RSS | ✗ RSS only | ✗ RSS only | ✗ RSS only |
| Third-Party App Support | ✓ Reeder, ReadKit, Unread, etc. | ✓ Google Reader API, Fever API | ✓ Fever API, Google Reader API | ✓ Own API, Fever plugin |
| Active Development | ✓ Frequent updates since 2009 | ✓ Active community | ✓ Solo maintainer | ✓ Solo maintainer |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 | Apache 2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
FreshRSS, Miniflux, and Tiny Tiny RSS are all excellent projects, but they require you to set up and maintain your own server. That means provisioning a VPS, configuring a database, managing updates, and handling backups. NewsBlur gives you a choice. You can sign up at newsblur.com and start reading in seconds, or you can self-host the entire stack with Docker. No other open source RSS reader offers both options.
Most open source readers give you a reverse-chronological list of stories and leave it at that. NewsBlur goes further with its intelligence training system. You can train on authors, tags, title keywords, full text, URLs, and regex patterns to highlight stories you care about and hide the rest. Stories are color-coded green, red, or neutral so you can see your training at work. On top of that, Ask AI lets you query any story with Claude, GPT, Gemini, or Grok to get summaries, extract key points, or ask follow-up questions.
NewsBlur includes native iOS and Android apps built in-house. The other open source readers rely on third-party clients via API compatibility layers. NewsBlur also lets you forward email newsletters into your feed reader and follow websites that don't have RSS at all using web feeds. These features are built into the hosted service and the self-hosted version alike.
NewsBlur is released under the MIT license, the most permissive of the four readers compared here. The entire codebase, including the web app, iOS app, Android app, and all backend services, is available on GitHub. You can inspect how your data is handled, contribute features, or fork the project. Whether you use the hosted service or run your own instance, you always have full visibility into the software.