reader
Feed reader web app and library (so you can use it to build your own), with only standard library and pure-Python dependencies.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Yes: 41 commits in the last 90 days, latest release 3.27 (Oct 2026).
Comparisons in Feed Readers: Feedly alternatives.
At a glance
reader quick facts
- Health score
- 81/100 GOOD
- Stars
- 559
- Last commit
- 8 days ago (Oct 2026)
- Latest release
- 3.27, Oct 2026
- Licence
- BSD-3-Clause
Top alternatives to reader
In its own words
The project's README opens: "It is designed to allow writing feed reader applications without any business code, and without depending on a particular framework; in MVC terms, you'd probably call it a fat model."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
reader scores 81/100, #12 of 26 in Feed Readers: 41 commits in the last 90 days earn 35.0 of 35 points, the latest release (3.27, 19 days ago) earns 25.0 of 25, 559 stars add 11.0 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and no advertised Docker image leaves the final 10 unclaimed. That places it in the good band (70 and above). The biggest shortfall is Docker support, worth 10.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity 35.0 / 35
41 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 25.0 / 25
3.27 released 19 days ago
- Stars 11.0 / 20
559 stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support biggest shortfall 0.0 / 10
No Docker support advertised
Commit activity
- 41
- Last 90 days
- 393
- Last 12 months
- 8 days ago
- Last push
Ranked #12 of 26 tools in Feed Readers by health , between bewCloud (#11) and RSS Monster (#13) .
Details
| Licence | BSD-3-Clause |
| Platforms | Python |
| Latest release | 3.27 · 19 days ago |
| Stars | 559 |
| Open issues | 34 |
| Docker | Not advertised |
| Repository | lemon24/reader ↗ |
reader vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a category with reader (Feed Readers), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSSHub | 99 | 47k | MIT | today |
| Yarr | 84 | 4.1k | MIT | yesterday |
| reader (this tool) | 81 | 559 | BSD-3-Clause | 8 days ago |
| Tiny Tiny RSS | 67 | 871 | GPL-3.0 | 5 days ago |
| Kriss Feed | 20 | 292 | CC0-1.0 | 3 months ago |
| Bubo Reader | 19 | 236 | MIT | 10 months ago |
reader: common questions
Is reader still maintained?
reader had 41 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 8 days ago; the latest tagged release, 3.27, is from 19 days ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.