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Self-host FreshRSS with Docker Compose

Selbstgehosteter RSS-Reader zum Verfolgen von Nachrichten und Podcasts ganz ohne Werbung oder Tracking.

freshrss

postgres

postgres:18.3-alpine3.23

postgres-postgres-data-init

busybox

postgres-postgres-socket-init

busybox

The steps below take a few minutes end to end.

  1. Docker compose setup and file
    save the generated compose and env files.
  2. Secret generation
    create the random passwords FreshRSS needs.
  3. Start FreshRSS with Docker Compose
    bring the stack up and check it's healthy.

Requirements

You'll need these installed on the machine you're deploying to:

Docker

Packages FreshRSS and everything it depends on into an isolated container, so it runs the same way on your machine as it does everywhere else.

Install guide

Docker Compose

Reads docker-compose.ymland starts everything in it together. Ships with Docker Desktop. On Linux servers it's usually a separate install.

Install guide

1. Docker compose setup and file

Create a folder for FreshRSS and save the file below into it as docker-compose.yml. It describes every container the stack needs — FreshRSSitself and any supporting services, such as its database — along with the ports, volumes and environment variables each one uses. You'll also need an empty .env file in the same folder; Docker Compose reads it automatically and uses it to fill in the ${VARIABLE}references you'll see in the file below.

docker-compose.yml

version: "3.9"
services:
  freshrss:
    image: freshrss/freshrss:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - 80:80
    environment:
      ADMIN_API_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_ADMIN_API_PASSWORD}
      ADMIN_EMAIL: admin@bitflake.app
      ADMIN_PASSWORD: Admin123
      BASE_URL: http://freshrss.localhost:80
      CRON_MIN: 2,32
      DB_BASE: app
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      DB_USER: app
      FRESHRSS_INSTALL: |-
        --api-enabled
        --base-url http://freshrss.localhost:80
        --db-base app
        --db-host postgres
        --db-password ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
        --db-type pgsql
        --db-user app
        --default-user admin
        --language en
      FRESHRSS_USER: |-
        --api-password ${RANDOM_ADMIN_API_PASSWORD}
        --email admin@bitflake.app
        --language en
        --password Admin123
        --user admin
    volumes:
      - data:/var/www/FreshRSS/data
    depends_on:
      postgres:
        condition: service_started
  postgres:
    image: postgres:18.3-alpine3.23
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${RANDOM_PG_PASSWORD}
      POSTGRES_USER: app
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
      - postgres-socket:/var/run/postgresql
    depends_on:
      postgres-postgres-data-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
      postgres-postgres-socket-init:
        condition: service_completed_successfully
  postgres-postgres-data-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - postgres-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    command:
      - chown
      - 70:70
      - /var/lib/postgresql/data
  postgres-postgres-socket-init:
    image: busybox
    volumes:
      - postgres-socket:/var/run/postgresql
    command:
      - chown
      - 70:70
      - /var/run/postgresql
volumes:
  data: null
  postgres-data: null
  postgres-socket: null

Volumes

FreshRSS stores its data in named Docker volumes, so it survives container restarts and updates:

  • data mounted at /var/www/FreshRSS/data: FreshRSS's data directory: instance configuration (including the generated auth salt), per-user settings and profiles, cached feed favicons, and application logs.

2. Secret generation

FreshRSS needs a few randomly generated secrets — for example, database passwords or an internal session key — before it can start. These are referenced from docker-compose.ymlabove but don't live in it, so they need to end up in your .env file. Pick one of the two options below.

Generating secrets…

3. Start FreshRSS with Docker Compose

From the folder with docker-compose.yml and .env, run:

Terminal

Start FreshRSS and all its supporting services in the background.

docker compose up -d

The -d flag runs the stack in the background so it keeps running after you close the terminal. Docker will pull the images the first time, which can take a minute or two.

To check on it afterwards: docker compose ps shows whether containers are healthy, and docker compose logs -f follows their logs if something looks wrong. Once it's running, open http://localhost:80 in your browser.