Fluent Reader vs Newsboat
Fluent Reader
hyliu.me
Newsboat
newsboat.orgSide by side
| Figure | Fluent Reader | Newsboat |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · RSS Reader Software | 8.8 (#5) | 8.2 (#13) |
| Integrations | It supports Inoreader, Feedbin, and services compatible with Fever or Google Reader API. | It can act as a client for services including The Old Reader, NewsBlur, FeedHQ, BazQux, Feedbin, FreshRSS, Tiny Tiny RSS, ownCloud News, Nextcloud News, Inoreader, and Miniflux. |
| Notable limitation | The support page warns that connecting to a service can remove local articles whose source URLs match the service, while keeping custom rules and preferences. | The project says NetBSD is currently unsupported because of technical limitations in its iconv() implementation. |
| Purpose | Fluent Reader is a local, cross-platform news aggregator and desktop RSS reader. | Newsboat is an RSS/Atom feed reader designed for text terminals on Unix and Unix-like systems. |
| Security | The official site says XSS is blocked in an isolated context and a strict Content Security Policy is enforced. | The documentation asks users to report vulnerabilities by email and encrypt messages with the project’s OpenPGP key if possible. |
| Support | The project directs users to report bugs or request features through GitHub issues. | The project directs general questions and non-security issues to its issue tracker and mailing list, and offers community chat on Libera.Chat. |
Plans
In their own words
Fluent Reader
Fluent Reader is a free, open-source news aggregator and RSS reader for desktop, built for local, distraction-free reading. Its built-in article view handles RSS full text and can use Mercury Parser to load full text; webpages can also open inside the app or externally. Search spans titles and article contents, with regular expressions available for searches and rules that can mark, hide, or star articles. Subscriptions can be grouped, imported or exported as OPML, and included in backups. Desktop versions are distributed for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports Inoreader, Feedbin, and services compatible with Fever or Google Reader API, alongside listed compatibility with services such as FreshRSS, Miniflux, The Old Reader, BazQux Reader, and Tiny Tiny RSS. Fluent Reader Lite offers iOS TestFlight access and Android APK downloads. The project says it does not collect, store, or share personal information. However, a connected RSS service may see activity through its API, and connecting one removes local articles with matching source URLs while retaining rules and preferences.