Youlag (v4.1.0): Modernize FreshRSS for viewing YouTube and articles
It depends on your needs, as with most things. I chose FreshRSS as it allowed me to customize it, to turn it into a YouTube subscription feed. Before I created Youlag, I was using FreshRSS’ official YouTube plugin for this purpose.
I did stumble upon Miniflux while deciding on a RSS reader, but never considered it as it didn’t include thumbnails in the feed view.
That’s odd, and you made sure that video mode for "All pages and categories " is unchecked?
If you’re not on the latest version of FreshRSS, perhaps try updating? During development and testing, I’ve always stayed with the latest version.
Youlag (v4.1.0): Modernize FreshRSS for viewing YouTube and articles
Youlag doesn’t come with the core FreshRSS, it’s an extension you need to manually install. You can follow the install instructions here to learn how to install Youlag. It’s the same method that you use to install any other third-part extension for FreshRSS.
Once installed, the extensions page should look like this:
Just to double check, is the Youlag extension enabled in “Settings -> Extensions”?
The view you described sounds like what FreshRSS would look like if Youlag isn’t enabled.
If you’re thinking of SponsorBlock, Youlag doesn’t support that feature. In this recent comment, I’ve shared why that is the case.
For traditional adblocking, I would suggest using uBlock Origin, which is also available on Android for firefox-based browsers.

Youlag is a FreshRSS extension [https://github.com/civilblur/youlag] that allows you to browse your YouTube RSS feed through a modern video-centered interface. It incorporates a bunch of quality-of-life features and mobile friendly layout. Supports both text-based and video feed content. Why? For those who prefer not to use a Google account to stay connected with creators, following via RSS provides a way to do so without being tied to a specific platform. Since FreshRSS is web-based, you can access your subscriptions and playlists from any device. Recent features: - Add your own Invidious instance to use it as video playback source. - Simulated “Picture-in-Picture” mode, allowing scrolling through the feed while keeping the video in the bottom corner of the page. Other features: - Fullscreen viewing for videos and articles. - Familiar video layout to e.g. YouTube. - Dark mode. - Redesigned mobile menus for better one-handed navigation. Note for existing Youlag users: Youlag is now installed as a standard FreshRSS extension, and no longer uses the “User CSS/JS” method. To upgrade, please install it as with any other FreshRSS extension. Find more details and instructions in the repository: https://github.com/civilblur/youlag [https://github.com/civilblur/youlag]
I don’t use Grayjay myself, but I tried it a long time ago, so this what I recall.
Grayjay uses a web scraper to feed the stream into its own video player, which lets them add features such as timestamp, SponsorBlock, and background playback.
Youlag is less sophisticated as it’s solely a client‑side approach that embeds the official YouTube player. If you however add your own Invidious instance via the Youlag settings, you can play it through Invidious instead.
With Youlag in FreshRSS, everything runs in the browser, so there’s no device syncing needed. That also means it even works on iOS devices, and essentially anything that can run a modern browser.
Watch videos in FreshRSS like it's YouTube: "Youlag" extension (v4.0.3)
Thanks a bunch from sharing your result! Based on the fact that ICO works, and I didn’t see any real issues in the logs, it could be the “Post-processing…” part where something goes wrong (I didn’t add any more detailed logs for that part unfortunately).
Will get back once I’ve setup a basic Windows development environment and made some tests!