Wallabag

wallabag saves articles so you can read them later, properly. Give it a link and it fetches the piece, throws away the ads, the newsletter pop-up and the navigation, and keeps the text and pictures in a clean reading view that doesn't change when the site redesigns itself.

From there it's a library. Tag articles, annotate passages, search the full text, mark things as favourites, and archive what you've finished. Export an article, or a whole tag, as ePub, PDF, plain text or a few other formats when you want it on an e-reader.

When does wallabag make sense?

You find good things at the wrong time of day and want them waiting for you later.
You read on an e-reader. ePub export puts articles on it.
You want a copy that survives the site rewriting or removing the page.
You want highlights and notes, not just the link.
You just want the link saved? Linkding is a bookmark manager with none of the article fetching.

How do I access Wallabag?

Wallabag is available:

From your dashboard: https://your-username.elfhosted.com
Directly: https://your-username-wallabag.elfhosted.com

Signed-in users see their own URLs

The addresses above show the general pattern. Sign in and these become your personal, clickable links.

How do I use it?

wallabag sits behind your ElfHosted login, and it also has an account of its own. That account ships with wallabag's own default:

Field	Value
Username	`wallabag`
Password	`wallabag`

Change the password before you save anything. Open the configuration screen, then My account, and set a new one.

wallabag sends no email here, so the "forgot your password" link has nothing to send. Keep the new password somewhere you'll find it again. New sign-ups are switched off, so nobody else can create an account on your instance.

Save your first article

Click the plus icon and paste a link. wallabag fetches the article and shows you the readable version.
Add tags, or set up tagging rules so articles tag themselves based on their content.
Select a passage and annotate it as you read.
Archive what you've finished, or mark it a favourite to keep it handy.
Use the export menu on an article, or on a tag, to get ePub, PDF, plain text, CSV or JSON out.

wallabag can also import from Pocket, Instapaper, Readability, Firefox and Chrome bookmarks, and its own export format, from the Import menu.

Some sites only show the article to a signed-in reader. wallabag can store per-site credentials and use them when it fetches, from the Site credentials screen. Those are encrypted with a key kept in your config/wallabag folder, so leave that file alone.

Bear in mind that wallabag fetches whatever address you give it, from our network rather than yours. That's how it works, and it's worth knowing before you paste in something private.

Browser extensions, mobile apps and feeds

Everything in wallabag is reached through your ElfHosted login, with nothing open to the wider internet. That keeps your reading list private, and it means:

The wallabag browser extensions and mobile apps sign in with wallabag's API, which can't pass your ElfHosted login, so they can't connect here.
The RSS feeds of your unread, starred and archived articles sit behind the same login, so an external feed reader can't fetch them. A reader you run on ElfHosted, like FreshRSS, is a different matter.
Public share links for an article open for people who can get past your ElfHosted login, not for anyone with the address.

To save a link from your phone, open wallabag in the browser and use the plus icon, or add it to your home screen.

Where are my articles stored?

wallabag keeps articles in a SQLite database in your config/wallabag folder, with downloaded images alongside it, and we back the database up daily.

Wallabag also works with

How do I get support for Wallabag?

For general use of Wallabag, refer to the official site or to one of the links in the resources section below.
For specific support re your ElfHosted configuration / account, see the ElfHosted support options!

You can contribute directly to the development of Wallabag using the following:

Liberapay

Wallabag resources

Your content, your responsibility

ElfHosted provides Wallabag as a hosted application — we do not supply content, accounts, or third-party credentials. You are responsible for ensuring that your use of this app complies with applicable laws and our Acceptable Use Policy. If you have questions about what is or isn't permitted, please reach out — we're happy to help.

What users say..

We're rocking some excellent TrustPilot Reviews, and here's what some of our ~~users~~friends say..

I am new here, but today I learned realized that Elfhosted is one of the best free and open source software communities I've seen, and FOSS communities have been at the center of my life since the 90s (Perl, PHP, Symfony, Drupal, Ethereum, etc.). Great open software built by great people who care = great community, and that is something special.

You've done an amazing job @Funky Penguelf with the platform you provide and this place has an awesome mix of active community caretakers and software creators that I've seen here so far like BSM, Spoked, LayeZee and other elf vengers. Keep up the energy, productivity and community and take time to enjoy it and appreciate each other!

@skwah (Discord)

As a happy Elfhosted customer—who also self hosts MANY things across about 10 severs (dedicated, VPSes, and VMs running on Synology), I wouldn’t switch to self hosting the services I get from Elfhosted. They just work with very little effort configuring things, and the support the owner and his team provides is second to none. Plus I love being part of a fledgling—but quickly growing—enterprise.

/u/jatguy. (Reddit)

I’ve been using this service for a while now, and honestly, it’s a game-changer compared to anything else I’ve tried for managing my media library. The support is fantastic—super quick, and if the staff aren’t around (which rarely happens), the community steps up right away. I can’t imagine going back to any other platform.

Before this, I had my own setup with a NUC, NAS, and tools like Sonarr and Radarr. It worked pretty well for a while, and my internet speed was high enough to stream without any buffering. But in the end, it wasn’t worth the time or headache of managing all the storage and keeping everything running smoothly.

Now, with this service, everything runs smoothly in 1080p+ with no buffering issues. The interface is really easy to use, which makes managing everything a breeze. Plus, having a whole community of smart people available for guidance is a huge bonus.

I was sold from the start, which is why I quickly upgraded from a 1-month to a 3-month subscription, and I’m planning to switch to a 1-year plan soon. This service totally pays for itself, and I’m sure you won’t be disappointed. It’s been really impressive.

@seapound (Discord)

Best possible options for anyone looking for the do-it-all option along with the best customer service ive experienced in this space so far. Id rate it a 6 if I could but its limited to 5/5...

@hashmelters (Discord)

(responding to a discussion re the cost of ElfHosted vs mainstream streaming / self-hosting):

I didn't know that the goal of this project was to compete with large companies running/renting entire DCs. I was under the impression that the goal of this project was to manage the updating of almost selfhosted applications on a shared platform with other users. Basically, be my sysadmin for me.

That being said, paying for services is the 'easy button'. There is a real world cost incurred for the time saved. Time is money. Time is the most valuable currency that exists. Once time is spent, it's forever lost, one cannot retrieve it again (yet). In my mind, there are 3 options for use of time with respect to: mainstream, selfhosting, elfhosted.

mainstream - my time is valuable and I don't want curated content and I don't care what content that I have the ability to consume. I only like what's popular.

elfhosted - my time is valuable, I want my own curated content without being forced to browse past the same damn entry 500 times just to find out that I can't watch the movie I want because it's not available in my current location or was removed last week from mainstream providers.

selfhost - I care about costs and I have nothing but time to waste or I want to learn about the backend of the systems involved. I'll pay for my own VPS/homelab, electricity, manage the OS, manage app updates, figure out how to make the apps talk nice to each other, create my own beautiful frontend.

I know how much my time is worth, does that reddit poster know how much their time is worth? Without knowing what you are worth, you can't make effective capital expenditures with respect to the time it will take to recoup the capital.

I know I don't need elfhosted at all for my use case. I choose to stay with elfhosted because it's my 'easy button'. It's an efficient capital expense for the amount of time it saves me managing my own hardware, apps and saves me electricity costs. I'm also in a situation where I don't have upload bandwidth from my home to serve HD content to myself remotely. If I lived back in a city, I would still be here. My time is worth $$/hr.

@cobra2 (Discord)

"Just wanted to check in here and let @Darth-Penguini and anyone/everyone else know...WOW. I have been struggling with storage for years, maintenance of Docker containers, upkeep, all of it. Elfhosted is so freeing. It's an amazing service that I hope to be a member of for a long, long time!"

@Fingers91 (Discord)

"I would recommend ElfHosted to anyone. It has been great so far and made life a lot easier than running my own setups. If you’re in the fence give them a try and help support this great community."

Zestyclose_Teacher20 (Reddit)

"thanks for the help and must say this is the best host I every had for my server 🙂 10/10 🙂 All other places I have try have I got a lot buff etc. Your host can even give me full power on a 4K Remux on 200GB big movie file . That's damn awesome 😄"

@tjelite (Discord)

"What an amazing support system these guys have Chris and Layzee i think it was! Both are very patient with me even though I am a newbie at all this. Very thorough and explained everything step by step with me

I couldn’t ask for anything better than the service I have received by these guys! Happy happy client❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"Very happy customer. Great service"

@ronney67 (Discord)

"Very good customer service, frequent updates, and excelent uptime!!!!!"

@ed.guim (Discord)

"I had my own plex-arrs setup on hetzner for years. Yesterday I deleted everything as elfhosted has gone above and beyond it. And it has a fantastic, active community as well! Very friendly, helpful and like-minded folks always willing to help and improve the system. Top notch!"

@alon.hearter (Discord)

"Absolutely Amazed with the patience and professionalism of all Elf-Venger Staff including bossman penguin❤️"

@dead.potahto (Discord)

"@BSM went above and beyond to make sure I had all the one on one support needed with my sub. Thank you for your patience! Elfhosted continues to be Elftastic !!"

@bfmc1 (Discord)

"really enjoying the service from elfhosted. The setup is really easy from the guides on the website. And the help on the discord channel is really quick."

@jrhd13 (Discord)