How to Self-Host Miniflux: Minimal RSS Reader 2026

TL;DR

Miniflux (AGPL 3.0, ~6.3K GitHub stars, Go) is a deliberately minimal RSS reader — fast, opinionated, and distraction-free. No categories, no tags, no themes. What you get: all your feeds in a single sorted list, full keyboard navigation, full-text fetching, and Google Reader + Fever APIs for third-party apps. The entire server is a single Go binary + PostgreSQL. Compare Miniflux vs FreshRSS: FreshRSS is richer (extensions, multiple views, categories); Miniflux is faster and deliberately simpler — closer to the old Google Reader's "river of news" philosophy.

Key Takeaways

Miniflux: AGPL 3.0, ~6.3K stars, Go — opinionated, minimal, keyboard-driven
Single Go binary: No PHP, no Redis, just Go + PostgreSQL
Full-text fetch: Retrieves full article content even for truncated feeds
Fever + Google Reader API: Works with Reeder, NetNewsWire, Fluent Reader
Scraper rules: Custom content extraction rules per website
No JavaScript bloat: Server-rendered UI, loads in milliseconds

Miniflux vs FreshRSS vs Feedly

Feature	Miniflux	FreshRSS	Feedly Pro
License	AGPL 3.0	AGPL 3.0	Proprietary
Cost	Free	Free	$8/mo
Language	Go	PHP	—
Database	PostgreSQL only	SQLite/PostgreSQL	Cloud
UI	Minimal, keyboard-first	Feature-rich	Rich
Categories	No (flat list)	Yes	Yes
Extensions	No	100+	No
Full-text fetch	Yes	Yes	Yes (AI)
Fever API	No	Yes	—
Google Reader API	Yes	Yes	—
RAM	~30MB	~50MB	—
GitHub Stars	~6.3K	~10K	—

Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  miniflux:
    image: miniflux/miniflux:latest
    container_name: miniflux
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      DATABASE_URL: postgres://miniflux:${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}@db/miniflux?sslmode=disable
      RUN_MIGRATIONS: "1"
      CREATE_ADMIN: "1"
      ADMIN_USERNAME: admin
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: "${ADMIN_PASSWORD}"
      POLLING_FREQUENCY: 15          # Feed refresh interval (minutes)
      POLLING_PARSING_ERROR_LIMIT: 3 # Disable feed after 3 errors
      WORKER_POOL_SIZE: 5            # Parallel feed fetchers
      BASE_URL: "https://rss.yourdomain.com"

  db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: miniflux
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}"
      POSTGRES_DB: miniflux
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD", "pg_isready", "-U", "miniflux"]
      interval: 10s
      start_period: 30s

volumes:
  postgres_data:

# .env
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-db-password
ADMIN_PASSWORD=your-admin-password

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8080 → log in as admin.

Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

rss.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Part 3: Import Feeds (OPML)

Settings → Import & Export → Import Feeds → upload OPML file
Miniflux starts fetching immediately

Export from:

Feedly: Settings → Import & Export → Export OPML
FreshRSS: Subscription → Import/Export → Export OPML
NewsBlur: Account → Import/Export → Download OPML

Miniflux is designed for keyboard-first use:

Key	Action
`j`	Next unread entry
`k`	Previous entry
`m`	Mark as read/unread
`v`	Open original URL
`f`	Toggle bookmark
`h`	Show help
`g u`	Go to unread
`g b`	Go to starred/bookmarks
`g h`	Go to history
`g f`	Go to feeds list
`R`	Refresh current feed

Part 5: Full-Text Fetching

For feeds that truncate articles:

Edit Feed → Fetch original content: Yes
Miniflux fetches the full article from the source

Custom Scraper Rules

For sites with complex layouts, add custom CSS selectors:

# Rules are stored in miniflux's "scraper_rules" database table
# Configure via the UI: Edit Feed → Scraper Rules

# Format: CSS selector for main content
# Example for a news site:
article.article-body, div.article-content

# Or use XPath:
# xpath:article//div[@class='content']

Miniflux also supports the Readability.js algorithm as fallback.

Part 6: Connect Mobile Apps

Enable API

Miniflux supports the Google Reader-compatible API:

API endpoint: https://rss.yourdomain.com/googlereader/reader/api/0

Reeder 5 (iOS/macOS):

Add account → Feedly (Google Reader-compatible)
URL: https://rss.yourdomain.com/googlereader/reader/api/0
Username + password

NetNewsWire:

Accounts → Add Account → Feedly
Use Google Reader API endpoint

Fluent Reader (Windows/Linux/macOS):

Settings → Account → Add → Miniflux
URL: https://rss.yourdomain.com
API key (generate in Miniflux settings)

API Key (simpler than password)

Settings → API Keys → Create API Key
Use in apps instead of username/password
More secure — revocable independently

Part 7: Fever API

Miniflux doesn't support Fever natively — use FreshRSS if Fever compatibility is required (e.g., for older clients like ReadKit or Mr. Reader on iOS).

For Miniflux, the Google Reader API covers most modern clients.

Part 8: Webhooks and Integrations

Miniflux can push new articles to external services:

Integration options (Settings → Integrations):

Apprise: Push notifications to 50+ services (Slack, Discord, Telegram, ntfy)
Webhook: POST to any URL when new articles arrive
Readwise: Sync highlights to Readwise
Wallabag: Save articles directly to Wallabag
Instapaper / Pocket: Send to read-later services
Pinboard: Bookmark new articles
Matrix: Post to Matrix room
Telegram Bot: Post new articles to Telegram

Webhook setup:

// Miniflux sends POST to your URL with:
{
  "event_type": "save_entry",
  "feed": {
    "id": 1,
    "title": "Hacker News",
    "feed_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/rss"
  },
  "entry": {
    "id": 42,
    "url": "https://example.com/article",
    "title": "Interesting Article",
    "content": "Full article content here...",
    "published_at": "2026-03-09T10:00:00Z"
  }
}

Part 9: Filters

Filter entries automatically:

Edit Feed → Block List (regex): Hide entries matching patterns
```
sponsored|advertisement|promoted
```
Edit Feed → Keep List (regex): Only show entries matching:
```
rust|golang|typescript
```

Rules use Go regex syntax.

Part 10: Environment Tuning

Key environment variables for optimization:

environment:
  # Polling:
  POLLING_FREQUENCY: 15             # Minutes between refreshes
  BATCH_SIZE: 100                   # Feeds fetched per batch
  WORKER_POOL_SIZE: 5               # Parallel fetch workers
  
  # Cleanup:
  CLEANUP_FREQUENCY_HOURS: 24       # Run cleanup daily
  CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_UNREAD_DAYS: 60   # Keep unread entries for 60 days
  CLEANUP_ARCHIVE_READ_DAYS: 30     # Keep read entries for 30 days
  
  # Security:
  DISABLE_HTTP_SERVICE: "0"
  CERT_FILE: ""                     # Let Caddy handle TLS
  KEY_FILE: ""
  HTTPS_ONLY: "0"
  
  # Auth:
  AUTH_PROXY_HEADER: ""             # For SSO/proxy auth

Maintenance

# Update Miniflux:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f miniflux

# Backup database:
docker exec db pg_dump -U miniflux miniflux \
  | gzip > miniflux-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Reset admin password:
docker exec miniflux miniflux -reset-password

# Check feeds with errors:
# Settings → Feeds → Sort by "Parsing Error" — shows feeds that need attention

See all open source news and RSS tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/productivity.