Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fraidycat VS Newsboat

Compare Fraidycat VS Newsboat and see what are their differences

Fraidycat logo Fraidycat

A desktop app or browser extension for Firefox or Chrome. You can use it to follow people (hundreds) on whatever platform they choose - Twitter, a blog, YouTube, even on a public TiddlyWiki

Newsboat logo Newsboat

Newsboat is a fork of Newsbeuter, an RSS/Atom feed reader for the text console. The only difference is that Newsboat is actively maintained while Newsbeuter isn't.
  • Fraidycat Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-11
  • Newsboat Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18

Fraidycat features and specs

  • Simplified Subscription Management
    Fraidycat provides an easy way to manage various content streams from different platforms in a single interface, eliminating the need to check multiple apps or websites.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    It works as a browser extension across major browsers, ensuring users can access it on any system that supports these browsers.
  • Minimalistic Design
    The interface is clean and minimalistic, helping users focus on content rather than getting distracted by excessive UI elements.
  • Categorization
    Allows users to categorize feeds by priority or interest, helping them to quickly access important updates.
  • Privacy-Conscious
    Fraidycat operates on the client-side without storing user data on external servers, thus ensuring greater privacy.

Possible disadvantages of Fraidycat

  • Limited Interaction
    Fraidycat only supports reading and does not allow interaction with content, such as liking or commenting, which can limit user engagement.
  • Learning Curve
    New users might find the unique approach to feed management and the interface slightly confusing at first, requiring some adjustment.
  • Feature Limitations
    While it covers many basic needs, it lacks some advanced features found in other feed aggregators like filters or keyword alerts.
  • Dependency on Browser
    As a browser extension, its functionality is limited to supported browsers, and it may not work as seamlessly in alternative web environments.
  • Manual Updates
    Users may need to manually refresh or check updates for some feeds, as it doesn’t always automatically refresh in real-time.

Newsboat features and specs

  • Open Source
    Newsboat is an open-source project, which means users can view, modify, and contribute to its source code. This transparency often leads to a higher level of trust and community-driven improvements.
  • Terminal-based
    It's a terminal-based RSS/Atom feed reader, making it lightweight and ideal for users who prefer using the command line, especially on low-resource systems.
  • Highly Customizable
    Newsboat allows you to customize keybindings, styles, and configurations, providing a personalized user experience tailored to individual preferences.
  • Offline Reading
    Newsboat allows for offline reading, enabling users to download articles for later consumption without an active internet connection.
  • Scriptable
    Users can extend its functionality with custom scripts, allowing for automation and integration with other tools and workflows.

Possible disadvantages of Newsboat

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For users not familiar with command-line applications, Newsboat can be daunting to learn and navigate compared to graphical interfaces.
  • Limited Multimedia Support
    Being a terminal-based application, Newsboat may not handle multimedia content, such as images and videos, as effectively as GUI-based RSS readers.
  • Manual Setup Required
    Users must manually configure their feeds and settings, which can be time-consuming compared to feed readers that automatically suggest popular feeds.
  • No Native Syncing
    Newsboat lacks built-in syncing capabilities across multiple devices, requiring third-party solutions or manual syncing methods.

Fraidycat videos

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Newsboat videos

Newsboat RSS Reader - Not Just For News Feeds

More videos:

  • Review - Newsboat Is The Best RSS Feed Reader I've Ever Used
  • Review - newsboat - much more than a simple RSS reader [FreeBSD and Linux]

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fraidycat and Newsboat)
RSS Reader
53 53%
47% 47
RSS
42 42%
58% 58
RSS Client
100 100%
0% 0
Insight Management
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Fraidycat and Newsboat

Fraidycat Reviews

  1. Stan
    · Founder at SaaSHub ·
    A great way to follow RSS

    I was looking for something like this for quite some time. I've been using Fraidycat for about 2 months now. It's very simple and easy to use. I love the you can organize your feeds by simple "emoji" tags. Also, the idea of setting an importance/frequency level per feed is great.

    If only more websites had RSS feeds...

    🏁 Competitors: Feedly, The Old Reader
    👍 Pros:    Simple|Unique

Newsboat Reviews

We have no reviews of Newsboat yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Fraidycat might be a bit more popular than Newsboat. We know about 30 links to it since March 2021 and only 26 links to Newsboat. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Fraidycat mentions (30)

  • Reading RSS content is a skilled activity
    There are a couple readers that avoid that by providing a calmer experience without a firehose and without background fetching. https://blogcat.org (I made this one) https://fraidyc.at (this is the inspiration for many calm readers) https://cblgh.itch.io/rad-reader (multiplatform and super calm). - Source: Hacker News / 4 days ago
  • Show HN: Artemis, a Calm Web Reader
    For reference, and not implying it's better or worse than your work OP, I've pleasantly used Fraidycat (https://fraidyc.at/) in the past. It's a webextension, so completely local, and also incorporates the idea of having a "calmer" experience: no infinite list of links to check, different update rates, ... I love your philosophy page, OP ! (https://jamesg.blog/2024/11/30/designing-a-calm-web-reader/). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Did rachelbythebay.com block my IP address because of my feed reader?
    I'm using Fraidycat (https://fraidyc.at/) which I enjoy a lot, but given her recent crusade against feed readers, I suspect that that's the reason that my IP address got blocked or so. (At least, that's what my ISP is leading me to believe because there is no issue on their end). Anyone else out there on the blacklist? - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • MeTube: Self-Hosted YouTube Downloader
    There's the fraidycat extension that I use to do exactly that: https://fraidyc.at/. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Google helped destroy adoption of RSS feeds
    I went years without consuming RSS until I discovered Fraidy Cat[1] here at Hacker News. 1. https://fraidyc.at. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
View more

Newsboat mentions (26)

  • Escape the walled garden and algorithm black boxes with RSS feeds
    Relevant: https://newsboat.org/ If you like your email in mutt, then you'll probably like your feeds in newsboat. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • RSS is still pretty great
    If you're using https://newsboat.org, you can add a filter (killfile) to remedy this:
      ignore-article "*" "title =~ \"#shorts\"".
    - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Style Your RSS Feed
    > Have you used any modern RSS reader recently like inoreader, they load the content of the page without visiting the publishing website. I'm happy with newsboat[1]; but I'm not surprised that people have integrated scraping into RSS readers. Fundamentally, that's not a problem with RSS, that's a war between scrapers and content providers. If the email newsletter model persists long enough, I'd expect that people... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Following cricket scores from the terminal using Cricinfo’s RSS feeds
    So, I installed a terminal RSS reader called Newsboat and added the feed to it. I have it always running in a terminal, and the scores refresh every minute. I can open the Cricinfo link in a browser by selecting a match and typing o. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Ad Blocking
    Here's part of my newsboat config (works great for subscriptions):. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fraidycat and Newsboat, you can also consider the following products

Miniflux - Miniflux is a minimalist web-based RSS reader. It's very easy to use.

Feedly - The content you need to accelerate your research, marketing, and sales.

Tiny Tiny RSS - Web-based news feed aggregator, designed to allow you to read news from any location, while feeling...

1Feed - 1Feed is your quiet place on the internet, where you can focus on the people and content you care about.

FreshRSS - FreshRSS is a free, self-hosted RSS aggregator.

Lenns.io - The feed reader for people that want to be in control