Mailbrew is $9/mo. Feedreader is a self-hosted alternative at $0.99/mo. Here's when each makes sense.
| Feedreader | Mailbrew | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted, your infra | Managed SaaS (cloud only) |
| Data location | Your server, your disk | Mailbrew's cloud |
| Free tier | 5 feeds | Paid only |
| Pro pricing | $0.99/mo | $9/mo |
| Dependencies | None (single binary + SQLite) | N/A (managed) |
| Setup time | ~30 seconds | Account signup |
| Dashboard | Built-in at /ui | Cloud dashboard |
| License | BSL 1.1 | Proprietary SaaS |
Feedreader is a single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Install it with one command, and you are running in under a minute. Your data stays on your server.
curl -fsSL https://stockyard.dev/feedreader/install.sh | sh
The decision between Feedreader and Mailbrew usually comes down to one question: do you need the breadth of features that Mailbrew offers, or would a focused tool that stays out of your way be a better fit? Mailbrew has spent years building an ecosystem around rss-to-email digest. Feedreader does one thing well and gives you complete control of the underlying data.
Architecturally, Feedreader and Mailbrew could not be more different. Mailbrew runs on distributed cloud infrastructure with load balancers, managed databases, CDNs, and redundancy across availability zones. Feedreader is a single process writing to a single file on a single disk. That sounds fragile until you realize that SQLite handles more concurrent readers than most web applications will ever need, and WAL mode means reads never block writes.
The migration path from Mailbrew depends on how much history you need to bring over. If you only need active records, a manual re-entry through Feedreader's dashboard might be faster than writing a migration script. If you need full history, export from Mailbrew and use Feedreader's POST API to import records. Either way, the process is measured in hours, not weeks.
Single binary. Free to start. $0.99/mo for Pro.