Liferea vs Miniflux (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Miniflux grades higher than Liferea: 3.2 against 2.8 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Liferea grades higher on ease of use. Miniflux grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on value for money and the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Miniflux
Minimalist open-source feed reader, self-hosted or hosted
Which one is for you
Pick Liferea if
- Fits if you run Linux and want a local feed reader
- Works for pairing with a self-hosted reader like FreshRSS or Miniflux
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you use Windows or macOS, as no builds are listed
- Skip it if you read on a phone, as it has no phone or web app
- Watch out: install is through distribution packages, Snap or Flatpak, not one installer
- Too light for reading on other devices, as that needs a synced service and a different client
Pick Miniflux if
- Fits if you want a plain reader with no ads, tracking or telemetry, driven from the keyboard
- Works for people who'd rather pay $15 a year than look after a server
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want native apps, as it runs in a browser and leans on third-party phone apps
- Not for you if you keep old articles, since the hosted version removes read ones after 30 days and unread after 60
- Too light for you if you want a reader you never administer, because the free route is a PostgreSQL server you run
- Watch out: hosted accounts have no password reset and are deleted 30 days after a subscription lapses
- Watch out: the 15-day hosted trial account is removed if you don't subscribe, and hosted feeds refresh every 1 to 2 hours
How we grade them
| 2.8GPALifereaGood | 3.2GPAMinifluxVery good | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | AFree software with no paid plans, under 60% of the cheaper quarter. | AThe hosted version is $15 a year, which is $1.25 a month. Reading apps here start at $2.42 a month in the cheapest quarter, so it's under almost every price in the category, and it isn't renewed automatically. Run it on your own server and the software costs nothing. |
| Free plan and trial | AFree outright, with no plan, no cap and no account to open. | AThe whole reader is free and open source under Apache 2.0, with nothing held back for payers. The catch is where you put it: there's no free hosted plan, only a 15-day trial, and that account is removed if you don't subscribe. |
| Features | CFeeds, offline reading, search folders and podcasts. It targets Linux and GNOME, and does the reader job fully, as a smaller one. | BIt covers the feed-reading job: RSS, Atom and JSON Feed, OPML in and out, original-article fetching when a feed is summary-only, your own scraper and rewrite rules, tracker stripping, full-text search, regex filters and saving to 25-odd services. No apps of its own, though, and hosted only keeps starred articles. |
| Ease of use | BInstalled from your distribution and used like a mail client, with no store rating read. | CNo store rating on record. The hosted version is sign up and read, but self-hosting means running PostgreSQL, the only database it works with, and either way you lean on a third-party phone app because Miniflux has none. The hosted version has no password reset either. |
| Platforms and integrations | DLinux and FreeBSD only, which is a single operating system. Sync works with The Old Reader, FreshRSS, Miniflux and Tiny Tiny RSS. | BA web app with no native apps, which is what keeps it off an A. What it has is the plumbing: a REST API with Go and Python clients, webhooks, Fever and Google Reader compatibility so phone apps can sync, and saving on to Instapaper, Wallabag, Notion and Pinboard. |
| Best for | a local feed reader on the Linux desktop | a plain, private feed reader for $15 a year |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Liferea and Miniflux. How we grade
Price against what you get
Liferea has no paid plan and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Miniflux starts at $1.25 a month when paid by the year and scores 2.7.
Miniflux scores higher, and starts $1.25 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other read-later and bookmark apps on the chart, none scores higher than Liferea for less, and none scores higher than Miniflux for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Miniflux is self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Liferea | Miniflux | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free plan |
| Starts at | Free | $15 per year (hosted version) |
| Free plan | None | The software is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license when run on your own server. The hosted version has no free plan, only a 15-day trial. |
| Free trial | None listed | 15-day free trial of the hosted version; the account and its data are removed if you do not subscribe |
| Web | ||
| Linux | ||
| Made by | Liferea project | Frédéric Guillot |
| Price read from | github.com | miniflux.app |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Liferea
- It targets Linux and the GNOME desktop; the install page lists Linux and FreeBSD packages and no Windows or macOS builds.
- It has no phone or web app of its own, so reading elsewhere needs a synced service and a different client.
- Installation is through distribution packages, Snap or Flatpak rather than a single installer.
Miniflux
- There are no native apps: Miniflux runs in a browser and relies on third-party mobile apps through the Fever or Google Reader API.
- Self-hosting requires PostgreSQL, the only database Miniflux works with.
- On the hosted version, read articles are removed after 30 days and unread ones after 60; only starred articles are kept.
- The hosted version has no password reset feature, and accounts are deleted 30 days after a subscription lapses.
Key features
Liferea
- Mail-client style layout
- A three-part interface with a feed list, item list and an embedded web browser, similar to a desktop mail or news client.
- Offline reading
- Articles can be read without a connection, and headlines can be kept permanently in news bins.
- Full article text
- Full article text can be forced using HTML5 extraction, and some HTML5 sites without a feed can be subscribed to.
- Sync with other readers
- Synchronizes through the Google Reader API with services such as The Old Reader, FreshRSS and Miniflux, and with Tiny Tiny RSS.
- Search folders
- Search folders match items across feeds by rule.
- Podcasts and gopher
- Podcasts can be played inside the reader, and gopher phlogs can be read.
Miniflux
- Feed reading
- Reads Atom, RSS and JSON Feed, imports and exports OPML, handles podcast, video and image enclosures, and plays YouTube videos inside the reader.
- Original article fetching
- When a feed shows only a summary, Miniflux can fetch the original page and extract the article with a local Readability parser. Custom scraper and rewrite rules are supported.
- Privacy protections
- Removes pixel trackers and tracking parameters from URLs, proxies media, blocks external JavaScript and sends no referrer. There is no telemetry or advertising.
- Keyboard-driven interface
- A minimal, responsive web interface with a wide range of keyboard shortcuts, optional touch gestures, light, dark and system themes, and custom stylesheets.
- Categories, search and filters
- Articles are organized with categories and bookmarks, searched in full text through Postgres, included or excluded by regex filters, and can be shared publicly one at a time.
- Integrations and API
- Saves articles to more than 25 services, sends webhooks, offers a REST API with Go and Python clients, and works with mobile apps that support the Fever or Google Reader API.
Plans
Liferea
Liferea$0
Open-source software under the LGPL-3.0 license, installed through distribution packages, Snap or Flatpak.
Miniflux
Self-hostedFree
The complete open-source reader on your own server, shipped as a single binary, Debian and RPM packages or a Docker image.
Paid Hosting$15
per year, not renewed automatically
Run by Miniflux's developer on a server in Finland, with feeds refreshed every 1-2 hours and email support in English or French.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Liferea or Miniflux?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Liferea is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $1.25 a month when paid by the year for Miniflux. Liferea is free, and Miniflux starts at $15 per year (hosted version).
Which has a free plan, Liferea or Miniflux?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both Liferea and Miniflux have a free plan.
Which platforms do Liferea and Miniflux run on?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Liferea lists a Linux app and only Miniflux lists a web app. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.