FreshRSS vs NewsBlur
FreshRSS and NewsBlur are both RSS reader software. FreshRSS is open source under AGPL-3.0, with 16k GitHub stars. NewsBlur is a commercial product from NewsBlur.
Which to pick
- Pick FreshRSS when
- You want your own feed server that syncs read state across phone and desktop apps, on cheap PHP hosting.
- Pick NewsBlur when
- You want an independent RSS reader with story filtering and the option to self-host.
Side by side
A self-hosted RSS and Atom aggregator in PHP with multi-user support, WebSub, extensions and APIs that mobile reader apps can sync with.
An RSS reader that shows stories in the site's original layout and learns which stories you like through training filters; the code is open source.
You run and update the server yourself, and the default UI looks dated.
Essentially a one-person operation, and the interface is busy.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Cloud service, mobile app and self-hosted server
PHP, SQLite, PostgreSQL and MySQL
Python, Django, MongoDB and PostgreSQL
Open source, AGPL-3.0 (network copyleft)
Closed source, sold by NewsBlur
Use inside your business is unrestricted. If you change it and let customers use it over the internet, you must publish your changes.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
16k GitHub stars
53 Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Established: started 14 years ago, latest release 1.30.4.
Not known
Other comparisons
More RSS readers
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.