Feb 03, 2026 · Privacy & Self-Hosting / Beginner · ~2 MIN READ

Set Up FreshRSS for Private News and RSS Reading

Create a private reading hub for tech, security, homelab, and local news subscriptions — no algorithmic feed.

Who This Is For

Beginner.

Think of it like a curated newspaper delivered to your door with only the sections you actually read, instead of a noisy newsstand shouting every headline at you at once.

What You’ll Build

A categorized RSS reader with at least ten feeds and mobile-client access.

Prerequisites

Docker host

Why RSS

Fewer algorithmic feeds deciding what you see
One place for many sources
You control the organization, not a platform

Deploy with Docker Compose

$ services:
$   freshrss:
$     image: freshrss/freshrss:latest
$     ports: ["8080:80"]
$     volumes:
$       - ./data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data

Create Categories

Cybersecurity
Homelab
Linux
Networking
Local news
Vendor advisories

Import Existing Subscriptions

FreshRSS accepts standard OPML exports from other readers, a quick way to migrate an existing subscription list.

Mobile Access

Most FreshRSS-compatible mobile apps connect via the Fever or Google Reader API, both of which FreshRSS supports natively.

Security & Backup Notes

FreshRSS fetches feed URLs on the server’s behalf, don’t allow untrusted users to add arbitrary internal feed URLs if this is ever multi-user

Troubleshooting

Feed won’t refresh, check the site actually publishes a valid RSS/Atom feed at the URL you added
Website has no RSS feed, some sites removed feeds; a feed-generation proxy is the workaround, not FreshRSS itself
Reverse proxy login issues, check cookie/session handling through the proxy
Dangerous or untrusted feed URLs, restrict who can add feeds if multiple people use the same instance

Lab Finish Line