Yarr Hosting

How Yarr works

Yarr is a web-based feed aggregator that polls subscribed sources and presents new articles in a compact browser interface. It accepts Atom, RSS, RDF, and JSON feeds, supports OPML import and export, and runs background feed updates so readers can review several publishers from one place. Full-text search, themes, keyboard shortcuts, and a readability engine help people move through a busy subscription list.

Enclosures can expose podcast, video, or YouTube items inside the reader, while a Fever-compatible API and REST API support selected third-party clients or scripts. The catalogue preserves Yarr data under /data. It does not preconfigure an account or basic-auth credentials, even though upstream supports basic authentication for remote access, so operators should complete access controls before treating the address as private.

Key Yarr features

Feed content originates from external publishers and can change, disappear, contain tracking links, or include unsafe markup. Yarr sanitises content for reading, but the operator still controls subscriptions and should avoid treating an aggregated article as trusted input. Embedded media, full-text extraction, and linked images may contact the source or another external host.

An RSS reader is not an archival copy of every publisher, a copyright licence, or a promise that all sites expose complete articles. Feed polling can also be limited by publisher rate controls, invalid XML, redirects, certificate problems, or changed addresses. OPML exports provide a useful record of subscriptions, but article retention and read-state should be tested before migration.

Yarr vs Feedly

Yarr concentrates on self-hosted feed aggregation, local reading, search, themes, OPML, and compatibility APIs. Feedly is a provider-managed reading and research product with account synchronisation, web and mobile clients, folders and boards, integrations, and optional AI feeds or RSS-building features attached to commercial tiers.

Feedly may suit readers who want maintained native clients, provider-side discovery, collaborative boards, managed synchronisation, and advanced research features. Yarr fits people who already know which feeds they want and prefer a compact server under their control. The hosted package does not include Feedly’s source discovery, account network, AI processing, or paid integrations.

Who uses Yarr

Researchers can follow journals and blogs, developers can monitor project releases, and readers can replace a collection of newsletter tabs with feed subscriptions. A small organisation may also publish a shared reading endpoint when its access policy is clear.

Yarr is less appropriate for regulated media monitoring, permanent evidence capture, team curation with detailed roles, or publishers that do not expose useful feeds. Administrators remain responsible for authentication, subscription rights, remote content, API access, retention, and the consequences of opening links from untrusted sources.

Self-hosting Yarr: requirements and cost

Yarr resource use depends on feed count, polling frequency, article retention, search index size, enclosure use, external response times, API clients, and concurrent readers. PostgreSQL and MariaDB are Not required by the catalogue template; persistent reader state is kept under /data. The software has no separate application charge, while a very large subscription set can increase storage and scheduled network work.

On AvaHost, Yarr uses Plan 1 at €2. The hosted Yarr package includes one-click deployment, a custom domain with automated HTTPS, automatic application updates, and scheduled backups. The catalogue does not create Yarr authentication credentials, so configure upstream basic authentication or another approved access layer before exposing private subscriptions. AvaHost does not supply feed content, publisher access, AI research, media rights, or application email. Keep OPML exports and review subscriptions that repeatedly fail or return unexpected material.