How to Self-Host FreshRSS: Feature-Rich RSS Reader 2026

TL;DR

FreshRSS (AGPL 3.0, ~9K GitHub stars, PHP) is a self-hosted RSS aggregator that supports the Google Reader API, making it compatible with every major RSS client app. It has more customization than Miniflux — themes, extensions, user management, custom CSS — while still being lightweight and easy to deploy. Feedly charges $8/month for "Pro" features. FreshRSS gives you unlimited feeds, multi-user support, and full-text fetching for free.

Key Takeaways

• FreshRSS: AGPL 3.0, ~9K stars, PHP — RSS with Google Reader API, themes, extensions
• Google Reader API: Compatible with Reeder, Readably, News+, and all GR-compatible apps
• Multi-user: Create users with different feeds and settings
• Extensions: 50+ community extensions (reading time, full-text, custom CSS, etc.)
• Stats: Track reading habits, articles per feed, unread counts
• vs Miniflux: FreshRSS is more feature-rich; Miniflux is more minimal and opinionated

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Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  freshrss:
    image: freshrss/freshrss:latest
    container_name: freshrss
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    volumes:
      - freshrss_data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data
      - freshrss_extensions:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions
    environment:
      TZ: America/Los_Angeles
      CRON_MIN: "*/20"           # Update feeds every 20 minutes
      FRESHRSS_ENV: production
      # Auto-create first user:
      FRESHRSS_INSTALL: |
        --api_enabled
        --db-base freshrss
        --db-host db
        --db-user freshrss
        --db-password ${DB_PASSWORD}
        --db-type pgsql
        --base_url https://rss.yourdomain.com
        --user admin
        --password ${ADMIN_PASSWORD}
        --email admin@yourdomain.com
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy

  db:
    image: postgres:15-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: freshrss
      POSTGRES_USER: freshrss
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U freshrss"]
      interval: 5s
      start_period: 20s

volumes:
  freshrss_data:
  freshrss_extensions:
  db_data:

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8080 — log in with admin / your password.

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Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

rss.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

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Part 3: Add Feeds

Via web UI

1. + Subscribe → paste feed URL
2. Or enter website URL — FreshRSS auto-detects the RSS feed

Import OPML

1. Subscriptions → Import/Export → Import subscriptions
2. Upload .opml file from previous RSS reader

Discover feeds by website

FreshRSS can find RSS feeds from any URL:

Enter: https://arstechnica.com
→ FreshRSS finds: https://feeds.arstechnica.com/arstechnica/index

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Part 4: Categories and Labels

Categories

Organize feeds into categories:

1. Subscriptions → + New category
2. Name: Technology, News, Blogs, Podcasts
3. Assign feeds to categories

Labels

Tag individual articles:

1. Article → Add label
2. Labels: to-read, interesting, work, share
3. Filter by label in sidebar

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Part 5: Google Reader API

FreshRSS implements the Google Reader API for client app compatibility:

Enable API

1. Settings → Authentication → Allow API access: Enable
2. Settings → Profile → API password: Set a password (can differ from login)

API endpoint:

https://rss.yourdomain.com/api/greader.php

Compatible apps

App	Platform	Notes
Reeder 5	iOS/macOS	Best iOS RSS client, GR native
News+	iOS	GR + Fever support
Readably	Android	Material You design
FeedMe	Android	Feature-rich, GR support
NetNewsWire	iOS/macOS	Free, open source
Fluent Reader	Windows/Linux/macOS	Cross-platform
Vienna	macOS	Classic macOS RSS client

Reeder setup

1. Reeder → + → FreshRSS
2. URL: https://rss.yourdomain.com
3. Username: your FreshRSS username
4. Password: your API password (not login password)

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Part 6: Extensions

Install extensions to add features:

# Popular FreshRSS extensions:
# Available at: https://github.com/FreshRSS/Extensions

# Install via UI:
# Settings → Extensions → + Install extension
# Upload .zip or enter GitHub URL

# Or via volume mount:
docker cp MyExtension.zip freshrss:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions/

Notable extensions

Extension	Function
Reading time	Shows estimated reading time per article
Full-text RSS	Fetches full content from truncated feeds
Keyboard shortcuts	Customize keyboard navigation
Trending	Shows trending articles across subscriptions
Dark theme	Solarized Dark, Gruvbox themes
Auto unsubscribe	Remove dead feeds automatically

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Part 7: Full-Text Fetching

For feeds with truncated content:

Using the Full-text RSS extension

1. Install the Full Text RSS extension
2. Feed settings → Use full-text RSS feed:
   → Enable for truncated feeds

Manual per-feed scraper

Feed settings → Scraper rules:
CSS selector for main content:
article, .post-content, .article-body, main .content

External full-text RSS service

# Use FiveFilters or similar:
# Original feed: https://example.com/feed/
# Full-text: https://ftr.fivefilters.org/makefulltextfeed.php?url=https://example.com/feed/&max=10

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Part 8: Filtering and Rules

Keyword filters (per feed)

Feed settings → Filters:
Mark as read if: Title contains "sponsored"
Star if: Title contains "security" OR "vulnerability"

Search and filter

In the main view:

# Search across all feeds:
kubernetes                    → articles mentioning kubernetes
intitle:kubernetes            → only in titles
author:linus torvalds         → by author
date:<2026-01-01              → before date
#tag-name                     → by label

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Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup:
docker exec freshrss-db-1 pg_dump -U freshrss freshrss \
  | gzip > freshrss-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

tar -czf freshrss-data-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz \
  $(docker volume inspect freshrss_freshrss_data --format '{{.Mountpoint}}')

# Force feed refresh:
docker exec freshrss php /var/www/FreshRSS/app/actualize_script.php

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f freshrss

Why Self-Host FreshRSS?

The case for self-hosting FreshRSS comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting FreshRSS means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying FreshRSS, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives FreshRSS headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent FreshRSS data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running FreshRSS without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing FreshRSS's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your FreshRSS backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for FreshRSS's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose FreshRSS's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep FreshRSS's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to FreshRSS's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f freshrss

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change FreshRSS's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

1. Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
2. Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
3. If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
4. If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats freshrss. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping FreshRSS Updated

FreshRSS follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm FreshRSS is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

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See also: Miniflux — more minimal, keyboard-driven alternative

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