Miniflux is an RSS reader that does one thing: show you articles. Its restraint is the entire design.

Deliberate minimalism

There are no themes to configure, no dashboard, no social features, and the web interface works without JavaScript. Articles are readable text on a clean page. For people who found other readers accumulating features they never wanted, this is the appeal rather than a limitation.

It ships as a single Go binary backed by PostgreSQL, uses very little memory, and starts instantly.

Features that are actually there

Feed subscription with automatic detection, keyboard shortcuts throughout, full-text extraction for feeds that only publish summaries, integration with read-later services including Wallabag and Linkding, rules for filtering articles, and a media proxy for privacy. Google Reader and Fever API compatibility means third-party mobile clients work.

Versus FreshRSS

FreshRSS is more configurable, has an extension ecosystem, and offers a richer web interface. Miniflux is smaller, faster, and opinionated. Both expose the same client APIs, so the choice is about the server and the web reading experience rather than lock-in.

The realistic test: if you enjoy configuring software, FreshRSS gives you more to work with. If you want to subscribe to feeds and never think about the reader again, Miniflux is the better fit.

Deployment

Docker with PostgreSQL, or a binary and a systemd unit. It requires PostgreSQL specifically rather than supporting SQLite, which is the one meaningful deployment constraint.

License

Miniflux is released under the Apache License 2.0.

Links

• Website
• Repository