# Alternatives to FreshRSS

Self-hosted reader with extensions.

FreshRSS ranks #2 of 11 in RSS readers, with an Alt Score of 82. It is licensed under AGPL-3.0, free and available on the web. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.

Source: https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/freshrss/
Category: RSS readers

## Where FreshRSS stands out

- **Feed limit (free)** — 3 of 9 apps with a verified answer have this
- **Self-hostable** — 4 of 8 apps with a verified answer have this

## Overview

- **Who it's for**: People who want to follow websites, blogs, podcasts, and YouTube channels from one place without relying on a commercial reader, and are willing to self-host their own service (or use a shared instance run by someone else). Suits privacy-conscious users, sysadmins, and small teams who need a multi-user reader they control.
- **What you get**: A free, open-source RSS/Atom aggregator you install on your own PHP server, supporting multiple user accounts on one instance. It includes a built-in article reader with search, an extension and theme system for customization, OPML import/export, and the ability to generate feeds from pages that don't natively offer one. A REST-style API lets third-party mobile and desktop apps (Google Reader-API-compatible clients) connect to your instance.
- **How it works**: You deploy FreshRSS on your own server (or a Docker container), then add feed URLs or import an OPML file to build your subscription list. FreshRSS polls those feeds on a schedule (or via WebSub push) and shows new articles in its web interface, which you can also reach through compatible mobile apps using the API.

## Profile

- **License**: AGPL-3.0 (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Pricing model**: Free (verified 2026-07-11)
- **Starts at**: ?
- **Platforms**: Web
- **Status**: active (verified 2026-07-11)

## Ranked alternatives

| # | App | Alt Score | Licence | Platforms |
|---|-----|-----------|---------|-----------|
| 1 | [NewsBlur](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/newsblur.md) | 86 | MIT | Web, iOS, Android, macOS |
| 2 | [Miniflux](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/miniflux.md) | 82 | Apache-2.0 | Web, iOS, Android |
| 3 | [Tiny Tiny RSS](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/tiny-tiny-rss.md) | 82 | GPL-3.0 | Web |
| 4 | [Feedbin](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/feedbin.md) | 78 | MIT | Web, iOS |
| 5 | [Inoreader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/inoreader.md) | 73 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 6 | [Folo](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/folo.md) | 64 | AGPL-3.0 | Web, iOS, Android, Windows |
| 7 | [Feedly](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/feedly.md) | 50 | Proprietary | Web, iOS, Android |
| 8 | [Reeder](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/reeder.md) | 50 | Proprietary | iOS, macOS |
| 9 | [The Old Reader](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/the-old-reader.md) | 50 | ? | ? |
| 10 | [NetNewsWire](https://altcatalog.com/alternatives/netnewswire.md) | 28 | MIT | iOS, macOS |

Alt Score = Verified coverage (90%) + Visibility (10%). See https://altcatalog.com/how-alt-score-works/

## Feature comparison

Legend: Yes / No / Partial / ? (not verified).

| RSS readers checklist | FreshRSS | NewsBlur | Miniflux | Tiny Tiny RSS | Feedbin | Inoreader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free | Freemium | OSS + paid hosting | Free | Subscription | Freemium |
| Starts at | ? | $36/year | $15/year | ? | $70/year | $89.99/year (~$7.50/mo) |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 | MIT | Proprietary |
| Platforms | Web | Web, iOS, Android, macOS | Web, iOS, Android | Web | Web, iOS | Web, iOS, Android |
| Feed limit (free) | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | No | Partial |
| Full-text extraction | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Keyboard navigation | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rules & filters | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial |
| Newsletter ingestion (email address) | Partial | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Offline reading | ? | Partial | Partial | ? | ? | Partial |
| Tagging | Yes | Yes | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ? |
| Podcast support | Partial | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |

## Sources

Sources for FreshRSS. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.

- **License**: AGPL-3.0 — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/LICENSE.txt> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE”
- **Pricing model**: Free — <https://freshrss.org/index.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “FreshRSS is a free software (AGPL 3)”
- **Platforms**: Web — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/docs/en/users/06_Mobile_access.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “The FreshRSS user interface is optimized for both small and large screens.”
- **Status**: active — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/CHANGELOG.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “2026-XX-XX FreshRSS 1.29.2-dev”
- **Feed limit (free)**: Yes — <https://freshrss.org/index.html> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “FreshRSS can manage 1M+ articles and 50k+ feeds without complaining.”
- **Full-text extraction**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/docs/en/users/04_Subscriptions.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Retrieve a truncated feed from within FreshRSS”
- **Keyboard navigation**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/CHANGELOG.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “New shortcut `?` to show shortcut page and help”
- **Rules & filters**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/docs/en/users/10_filter.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “it's important to use efficient filters to display only a subset of the articles”
- **Newsletter ingestion (email address)**: Partial — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/Extensions/blob/main/extensions.json> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Subscribe to email newsletters as RSS feeds via a kill-the-news instance.”
- **Tagging**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/README.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “It supports custom tags.”
- **API**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/docs/en/users/06_Mobile_access.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “FreshRSS supports access from mobile / native apps for Linux, Android, iOS, Windows and macOS, via two distinct APIs”
- **Self-hostable**: Yes — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/README.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “FreshRSS is a self-hosted RSS feed aggregator.”
- **Podcast support**: Partial — <https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS/blob/edge/CHANGELOG.md> (verified 2026-07-11)
  - Quote: “Improve detection of image types for enclosures not providing a type”

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Ranked by verified data, never by who paid. https://altcatalog.com/trust/