FreshRSS Turned Out to Be a Great RSS Reader (With Installation Steps)

Additional Notes#

As the article itself says, read through the official information. The free-tier conditions may change in the future.

Free Trial and Free Tier Services and Products

Start building on Google Cloud with $300 in free credits and free usage of 20+ products like Compute Engine and Cloud Storage, up to monthly limits.

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For the OS, I chose Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Minimal (x86/64, amd64). It’s the latest long-term support release, and the CPU architecture matches.

The disk setting defaults to “Balanced persistent disk,” but that isn’t covered by the free tier, so you need to change it to “Standard persistent disk.”

That should probably satisfy the free-tier conditions.

All the Command Steps for Setting Up FreshRSS on a GCP VM#

[Prerequisites]

• A VM instance has already been created on GCP Compute Engine (OS: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Minimal, etc.).
• You are connected to the VM over SSH.

Phase 1: Initial Server Setup#

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# === 1. Update the package list and bring the system up to date ===
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sudo apt update
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sudo apt upgrade -y
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# === 2. Install the necessary tools ===
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# Install the text editor "nano"
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sudo apt install nano -y
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# Install the version control system "git" (used for downloading extensions)
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sudo apt install git -y

Phase 2: Installing Docker#

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# === 1. Install the packages needed to set up the Docker repository ===
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sudo apt install -y ca-certificates curl gnupg
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# === 2. Add Docker's official GPG key ===
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sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
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curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
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sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg
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# === 3. Write the Docker repository to the config file ===
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echo \
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  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
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  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
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  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
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# === 4. Update the package list again ===
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sudo apt update
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# === 5. Install Docker Engine itself and the Compose plugin ===
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sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin
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# === 6. Test run to check that Docker was installed correctly ===
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# If it prints "Hello from Docker!", it worked
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sudo docker run hello-world

Phase 3: Setting Up FreshRSS#

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# === 1. Create a working directory for FreshRSS and move into it ===
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mkdir ~/freshrss
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cd ~/freshrss
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# === 2. Also create a directory to hold extensions ===
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mkdir ./extensions
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# === 3. Create and edit the docker-compose.yml file ===
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nano docker-compose.yml

↓ Once the nano editor opens, copy everything below and paste it in.

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version: '3'
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services:
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  freshrss:
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    image: freshrss/freshrss
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    container_name: freshrss
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    restart: unless-stopped
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    ports:
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      - "8080:80"
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    volumes:
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      - ./data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data
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      - ./extensions:/var/www/FreshRSS/extensions
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    environment:
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      'CRON_MIN' : '*/30'

↑ After pasting, press Ctrl + X → Y → Enter to save and exit.

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# === 4. Start the Docker container ===
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# This starts FreshRSS, and you can do the initial setup from your browser
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sudo docker compose up -d

(At this point, access http://<server IP address>:8080 from your browser and finish FreshRSS’s initial setup, such as creating a user.)

Phase 4: Setting Up Extensions#

From FreshRSS’s “Extensions” tab, find the extensions you’re interested in and install them.

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# === 1. Stop the FreshRSS container for now, so we can work ===
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# Make sure the directory is ~/freshrss
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cd ~/freshrss
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sudo docker compose stop
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# Move into the extensions folder
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cd ./extensions
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# === 2. Download a third-party extension ===
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# Example: freshrss-af-readability
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git clone https://github.com/Niehztog/freshrss-af-readability.git
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# === 3. Start the FreshRSS container again to apply all the changes ===
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cd ~/freshrss
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sudo docker compose up -d

(After this, reload FreshRSS’s extensions page in your browser and turn on the toggle switch for each extension you want to use.)

Guide to Pointing a Custom Domain at FreshRSS with Cloudflare#

[Goal] To make the server’s http://<IP address>:8080 URL reachable at an easy-to-remember, secure URL: https://rss.your-domain.com.

[Prerequisites]

• Your own domain (for example your-domain.com) is already registered with Cloudflare.
• You know the external IP address of the GCP server where FreshRSS is running.

Step 1: Add a DNS Record (Linking the Domain to the IP Address)#

First, set things up so that the subdomain you want to create points to your GCP server.

1. Log in to Cloudflare and select the target domain.
2. Click “DNS” in the left menu.
3. Press the “Add record” button.
4. Create a record with the following contents.
   • Type: A
   • Name: rss (or enter whatever subdomain name you want to use, such as freshrss)
   • IPv4 address: Enter your GCP server’s external IP address.
   • Proxy status: Be sure it is set to **“Proxied” (the orange cloud icon)**. This is the most important point.
5. Click the “Save” button.

Step 2: SSL/TLS Settings (Encrypting the Connection)#

Next, set the connection between the user and Cloudflare to secure HTTPS.

1. Click “SSL/TLS” in the left menu and open the “Overview” tab.

2. Set the SSL/TLS encryption mode to “Flexible”.

   • (This means you no longer need to prepare an SSL certificate on the server side.)

3. Next, switch to the “Edge Certificates” tab.

4. Turn the “Always Use HTTPS” switch on.

   • (This automatically redirects http:// access to https://.)

Step 3: Origin Rules Settings (Hiding the :8080 Port Number)#

This setting lets you remove the port number from the URL.

1. Click “Rules” in the left menu and select the “Origin Rules” tab.
2. Press the “Create rule” button.
3. Create a rule with the following contents.
   • Rule name: FreshRSS Port Forward (or any easy-to-understand name)
   • Condition (“When incoming requests match…”):
     • Field: Hostname
     • Operator: equals
     • Value: rss.ilapaj.com (enter the subdomain name you set in Step 1)
   • Action (“Then…”):
     • Find the item called “Override destination port”.
     • Select “Port” and enter 8080 in the input field on the right.
4. Click the “Deploy” button to save and enable the rule.

Final Check#

That completes all the settings. It can take anywhere from a few minutes to about 10 minutes for DNS changes to propagate across the entire internet.

After waiting a little while, try accessing the following URL in your web browser.

https://rss.your-domain.com (*Replace the rss.your-domain.com part with the subdomain name you set up.)

If the FreshRSS login screen shows up and there’s a padlock icon in your browser’s address bar, you’re good!