Should I use the public RSS-Bridge instance or host it myself?

Updated

Use the public instance if you want to try RSS-Bridge quickly and don't mind depending on someone else's server. Host it yourself if you need reliability, privacy, or custom bridges and you're comfortable running a PHP application on a web server or in CLI mode. RSS-Bridge is a PHP project that generates RSS and Atom feeds for websites that don't have one, and it can run either on a web server or as a stand-alone application in CLI mode.

What the two options actually are

RSS-Bridge ships in a form that supports two deployment styles:

  • Public bridge instance — a shared, already-running copy of RSS-Bridge that anyone can use. The project's own site lists a public bridge instance alongside its GitHub repository and documentation.
  • Self-hosted instance — your own copy of the same PHP project, running on your web server or invoked in CLI mode.

Both run the same bridges. The difference is who operates the server and who can see the requests.

Compare on the dimensions that matter

Dimension Public instance Self-hosted
Setup effort None — open it and use it Install PHP, deploy the project, configure a web server or CLI
Maintenance Handled by the operator Yours: updates, PHP version, uptime
Control over bridges Limited to what the operator enables You choose and can add or modify bridges
Privacy Your feed requests go through a third party Requests stay on your infrastructure
Reliability Depends on the operator's capacity and policies Depends on your own hosting
Customization Not possible Full access to the codebase

The project itself only states that it can be used on web servers or as a stand-alone CLI application — it doesn't publish guarantees about the public instance's uptime, rate limits, or which bridges are enabled, so treat those as unknowns to verify before relying on it.

Choose the public instance when

  • You want to test whether a specific bridge produces the feed you need before committing to anything.
  • Your use is occasional and a temporary outage wouldn't disrupt you.
  • You don't have a PHP-capable host and don't want to set one up.
  • The feeds you're generating aren't sensitive.

Choose self-hosting when

  • You need the feed to keep working on your schedule, not someone else's.
  • The pages you're converting to feeds are private, internal, or tied to an account you'd rather not route through a third party.
  • You need a bridge that isn't enabled on the public instance, or you want to write or modify one.
  • You're comfortable with the operational work: a PHP runtime, a web server (or CLI invocation), and keeping the project updated.

How to decide in practice

  1. Identify the site you want a feed for and check whether a bridge for it exists in the project's documentation.
  2. Try that bridge on the public instance first. If it returns the feed you expect, you've confirmed the approach works.
  3. Ask whether you can tolerate the request going through a third party and the instance being unavailable at times. If yes, stay on the public instance.
  4. If either answer is no, or you need a bridge the public instance doesn't offer, move to self-hosting: deploy the PHP project on your server or run it in CLI mode, then point your feed reader at your own instance.

The GitHub repository and documentation are the places to confirm current bridge availability and deployment requirements, since the public instance's configuration isn't something the project documents in detail.