Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Feedrabbit

FreshRSS is a lightweight, self-hosted web application for aggregating and reading RSS and Atom feeds in one place. It is designed to be fast and efficient, while still offering powerful organization and filtering features for heavy feed readers.

Key Features

• Multi-user support with optional anonymous reading mode
• RSS and Atom feed aggregation with fast reading interface
• Tagging, saved searches, and filters for organizing large feed sets
• OPML import and export for migrating subscriptions
• WebSub support for near real-time push updates from compatible sources
• Optional feed generation via web scraping (XPath) and JSON documents for sites without feeds
• Extensible via themes and a plugin/extension system
• API for external and mobile clients, plus a command-line interface for administration tasks

Use Cases

• Personal or family feed reader to follow blogs, news sites, podcasts, and channels
• Team-shared monitoring of industry news with tags, filters, and saved queries
• Creating readable feeds from websites that do not provide RSS/Atom

Limitations and Considerations

• Some features may be less complete on mobile browsers compared to desktop
• Web scraping-based feeds can break when target websites change their structure

FreshRSS is a solid choice for users who want control over their subscriptions and reading experience without relying on third-party feed services. With strong performance, multiple database options, and extensibility, it scales from simple personal setups to very large collections.

Miniflux is a minimalist, opinionated feed reader for RSS and Atom feeds. It focuses on speed, privacy, and a distraction-free reading experience. The project is open-source and built to be self-hosted for personal use or small teams.

Key Features

• Supported feed formats: Atom 0.3/1.0, RSS 1.0/2.0, and JSON Feed 1.0/1.1
• OPML import/export and URL import
• Supports multiple attachments (podcasts, videos, music, and images)
• Plays YouTube videos directly inside Miniflux
• Organizes articles with categories and bookmarks
• Public sharing of individual articles
• Fetches favicons for feeds
• Saves articles to third-party services
• Full-text search powered by PostgreSQL
• Available in 20 languages
• Privacy and security: removes trackers, strips tracking parameters, uses media proxy, and privacy-friendly YouTube playback
• REST API and Fever/Google Reader API compatibility
• Docker image and official packages; single binary; written in Go

Use Cases

• Self-hosted personal RSS reader with private search and organization
• Reading and sharing articles publicly from your feeds
• Integrations with external apps via REST API or Fever/Google Reader compatibility

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires PostgreSQL; does not use an ORM
• No official mobile app; mobile usage relies on the responsive web UI
• Design is intentionally minimalist, which may lack feature breadth of heavier readers

Conclusion Miniflux provides a fast, privacy-first RSS reader with API access and a lean Go-based backend. It’s a solid choice for users who want a lightweight, open-source solution with strong privacy controls and self-hosting flexibility.

yarr (yet another rss reader) is a web-based RSS/Atom feed aggregator that can run as a personal server and also be used like a desktop app. It is designed to be lightweight and easy to deploy, shipping as a single binary with an embedded database.

Key Features

• Web UI for reading and managing subscribed feeds
• Single-binary deployment with embedded SQLite storage
• Optional desktop/tray GUI builds for macOS and Windows (and CLI/server mode)
• Built-in server configuration flags for authentication and TLS
• Fever API support for compatibility with some RSS clients

Use Cases

• Personal RSS/Atom feed reading with a clean web interface
• Running a minimal RSS service on a small VPS, NAS, or home server
• Using Fever-compatible apps by connecting them to yarr’s API

Limitations and Considerations

• Focused on being lightweight; advanced team/collaboration features are not a primary goal

yarr is a good fit if you want a simple, fast RSS reader you can run as a standalone server with minimal dependencies. Its single-binary approach and embedded SQLite database make it especially convenient for low-maintenance deployments.

CommaFeed is a Google Reader-inspired self-hosted RSS reader based on Quarkus with a React/TypeScript frontend. It provides a modern web interface, REST API, and Fever-compatible API, designed to scale to thousands of users and millions of feeds.

Key Features

• 4 layouts and a responsive UI with light/dark theme
• Keyboard shortcuts and right-to-left feed support
• OPML import/export and REST API
• Fever-compatible API for native mobile apps
• Automatic "mark as read" rules and CSS/JS customization
• Browser extension and native compilation for fast startup
• Multi-database support: H2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB

Use Cases

• Personal RSS reader hosted on your own server
• Team or organization needing a self-hosted feed reader with API access
• Integrations with Fever-compatible clients and mobile apps

Limitations and Considerations

• Java-based backend; memory management and JVM tuning may be needed for large feedbases (e.g., -Xmx settings)
• Packaging choices affect startup time and memory footprint (native vs JVM)

Conclusion

CommaFeed offers a robust, self-hosted RSS solution with APIs, language support, and deployment options, suitable for power users who want control over their feeds.

Source: (github.com)

RSSBox is a self-hosted RSS management service focused on making multilingual information consumption easier. It can translate, summarize, and filter RSS content, and publish the processed results as new RSS or JSON feeds for your readers and apps.

Key Features

• Per-feed translation with multiple engines (OpenAI API-compatible models, DeepL, LibreTranslate)
• Translate titles, full content, or generate AI summaries; optional bilingual display
• Keyword filtering plus AI semantic filtering to reduce noise
• Full-text extraction for feeds that only provide excerpts
• Merge multiple sources into unified feeds using tags (and apply filters to merged feeds)
• Feed update interval control and translation status/progress monitoring
• Usage and cost visibility per source (token/character statistics)
• Output subscriptions in RSS and JSONFeed formats

Use Cases

• Follow foreign-language news and blogs via translated RSS feeds in your preferred reader
• Build topic-based, merged feeds from many sources with automated filtering and summaries
• Generate a daily AI digest from multiple subscriptions for quick review

RSSBox is well-suited for individuals or teams who rely on RSS and want translation, summarization, and filtering in one place. Its per-source engine selection and cost tracking make it practical for ongoing, high-volume feed processing.

rss2email is a command-line utility that monitors RSS and Atom feeds and delivers new entries to email addresses. It runs as a local process (or scheduled job), tracks seen items, and sends email via a local sendmail-compatible MTA or an SMTP/LMTP server.

Key Features

• CLI-first tool with the r2e command for adding feeds, initializing config/data, and running feed checks
• Supports sending via local sendmail/compatible MTA, SMTP, or LMTP with authentication and TLS options
• Stores configuration and seen-item database in XDG-style locations (config and data files by default)
• Post-processing hook support to modify or sanitize entries before sending (custom modules/functions)
• Options for HTML mail, date header control, GUID/trust settings, and per-run no-send to seed state
• Lightweight dependencies (Python-based, uses feedparser and html2text) and packaged for multiple Linux distributions

Use Cases

• Receive email notifications for new posts from selected RSS/Atom feeds without visiting a feed reader
• Integrate feed-to-email delivery into existing mail workflows or mailboxes on a server
• Schedule periodic feed checks via system cron or task scheduler to distribute updates to users

Limitations and Considerations

• No built-in web UI or multi-user management; primarily single-user CLI usage
• Relies on external mail delivery configuration; deliverability and authentication depend on local MTA or SMTP settings
• Uses a local JSON feed database; not designed for very large-scale feed fleets or multi-tenant hosting without custom adaptations

rss2email is a simple, pragmatic tool for users who prefer receiving feed updates by email and who can manage mail delivery and scheduling on their host. It emphasizes configurability and extensibility via post-process hooks while remaining command-line focused.

KrISS Feed is a lightweight PHP-based RSS/Atom feed reader distributed as a minimal, deployable application. It is designed to run without a SQL database and can be installed as a single PHP file for easy self-hosting and portability.

Key Features

• Add and remove feeds and organize them in folders
• Import and export subscriptions using OPML
• No SQL/database required; file-based data storage and a single-file deployment option
• List, expanded and reader views with support for starred items and mark-as-read actions
• Auto-update in reader/show views and manual update controls
• Local cache of recent articles (auto cache of last downloaded items) and infinite scroll
• Anonymize links (does not anonymize images/media) and simple sharing integration (e.g., Shaarli)
• Progressive enhancements: fully usable without JavaScript; Bootstrap-based UI and internationalization
• Plugin support to extend functionality

Use Cases

• Run a lightweight personal feed reader on low-cost or shared PHP hosting
• Replace cloud RSS services for a single-user, privacy-minded feed reading setup
• Embed as a portable feed reader on a personal website or intranet for curated feeds

Limitations and Considerations

• Designed primarily for single-user or small-scale use; file-based storage and single-process PHP make large-scale, multi-user deployments or very large feed lists impractical
• Limited built-in user/account management and advanced multi-user features
• Performance and update concurrency are constrained by PHP execution environment and hosting resources

KrISS Feed is a pragmatic, minimal RSS/Atom reader focused on simplicity, portability, and low operational requirements. It is well suited for personal and small-scale use where ease of deployment and privacy are priorities.

LetterFeed converts email newsletters into RSS feeds by periodically scanning an IMAP mailbox for messages from configured senders and publishing each message as a feed entry. It provides a web UI for basic configuration and is distributed with Docker Compose for easy deployment.

Key Features

• Polls an IMAP mailbox (IMAP over SSL, port 993) and detects new emails from configured senders
• Generates per-sender RSS feeds with extracted email content as feed entries
• Web UI for configuring senders and some credentials; additional settings available via environment variables
• Docker Compose-based deployment for straightforward self-hosting and updates
• Environment variables (.env) locking to control which settings are editable from the UI
• Processes HTML and plain-text email content into feed items suitable for RSS readers

Use Cases

• Subscribe to email newsletters in any RSS reader instead of an inbox
• Archive and index newsletter content for personal reference or backups
• Feed newsletters into other automation or aggregation systems that consume RSS

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires direct IMAP access to a mailbox; providers that block IMAP or require OAuth2 app flows may need app-specific passwords or additional configuration
• Complex or heavily scripted newsletters may not render identically when converted to RSS; embedded scripts and some interactive elements will be stripped
• Focused on newsletter-to-RSS conversion; not a full-featured multi-tenant email management or advanced parsing platform

LetterFeed is a lightweight, practical solution for anyone who prefers to read newsletters via RSS. Its Dockerized deployment and simple UI make it easy to run on personal servers or small instances.

BBYEN is a small TypeScript/Node.js service that restores email notifications for new YouTube uploads by scanning your subscriptions and sending messages via SMTP. It pulls the list of subscriptions via Google OAuth and checks channel RSS feeds to detect new videos.

Key Features

• Automatically retrieves your YouTube subscriptions using OAuth credentials and the YouTube Data API
• Polls channel RSS feeds to detect recent uploads and avoids duplicate sends via a local sent-video database
• Sends notification emails through a configured SMTP account with configurable sender and destination
• Configurable timers for subscription refresh and video-check intervals
• Supports channel whitelist and blacklist in configuration to control which channels trigger emails
• Deployable as a Node.js app or via Docker / docker-compose

Use Cases

• Receive email alerts for new videos from subscribed YouTube channels when native email notifications are unavailable
• Aggregate new uploads into a single email destination for saving, filtering, or automated processing
• Run as a lightweight personal notifier on a home server or VPS to replace mobile push notifications

Limitations and Considerations

• Requires Google OAuth client credentials and enabling the YouTube Data API; the app may present an unverified app warning during authentication
• Cannot query a channel's bell/notification preference; whitelist/blacklist is manual and based on channel IDs
• Near-real-time delivery depends on configured polling intervals; not event-driven
• Relies on a local database/file for tracking sent videos; setup for very large subscription lists may need attention
• Requires a working SMTP account (may need app-specific passwords or SMTP settings for some providers)

BBYEN is a focused, minimal replacement for discontinued YouTube email notifications that emphasizes simplicity and user control. It is suitable for users who prefer email-based alerts and are comfortable configuring OAuth and SMTP details.

Newspipe is a web news aggregator for reading and managing RSS/Atom feeds from a browser. It supports multiple users on a single instance and provides tools to organize, search, and export your feed data.

Key Features

• Multi-user accounts on one instance
• RSS/Atom feed fetching with an asyncio-based importer command
• API to manage feeds and integrate custom crawlers
• Import/export feeds via OPML
• Account data import/export via JSON
• Search and favorite articles
• Detect inactive feeds
• Bookmark management, including import from Pinboard
• Optional LDAP authentication
• Light and dark UI themes

Use Cases

• Self-hosted RSS/Atom reader for individuals, teams, or households
• Feed management backend via API for custom crawlers or integrations
• Migrating feed lists and user data between instances using OPML/JSON

Limitations and Considerations

• Feed retrieval typically requires external scheduling (for example via cron)
• Database setup varies by backend (SQLite for simple setups, PostgreSQL for more robust deployments)

Newspipe is a practical option for running your own web-based feed reader with export-friendly formats and a programmable interface. Its multi-user design and optional LDAP make it suitable for small organizations as well as personal use.