Wallabag saves articles for later reading, stripping ads and clutter, and works entirely self-hosted — a private alternative to third-party read-it-later services.
What Wallabag Does
Save any article/web page via browser extension, bookmarklet, or mobile app; Wallabag extracts the core readable content (removing ads, navigation, and clutter) and stores it for offline, distraction-free reading later.
Prerequisites
- Docker and Docker Compose installed
Step 1 — Create a Docker Compose Configuration
mkdir wallabag && cd wallabag
nano docker-compose.ymlversion: '3'
services:
wallabag:
image: wallabag/wallabag
restart: unless-stopped
ports:
- "8000:80"
environment:
- SYMFONY__ENV__DATABASE_DRIVER=pdo_sqlite
- SYMFONY__ENV__DOMAIN_NAME=https://read.yourdomain.com
volumes:
- wallabag-data:/var/www/wallabag/data
- wallabag-images:/var/www/wallabag/web/assets/images
volumes:
wallabag-data:
wallabag-images:Step 2 — Start Wallabag
docker compose up -dStep 3 — Access the Web Interface
http://YOUR_SERVER_IP:8000Step 4 — Log In with Default Credentials
Username: wallabag
Password: wallabagChange these immediately after logging in for the first time.
Step 5 — Install the Browser Extension
Wallabag has official browser extensions for saving pages directly with one click — configure it to point at your self-hosted instance during setup.
Step 6 — Install the Mobile App
Official iOS and Android apps let you save and read articles on mobile, syncing with your self-hosted server.
Step 7 — Add HTTPS
See How to Install Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker to route your domain with SSL, matching the DOMAIN_NAME environment variable configured above.
Organizing Saved Articles
Use tags to organize saved articles by topic, and Wallabag's built-in read/unread and starred/archived states to manage your reading queue effectively.
Using the "Save via Email" Feature
Wallabag can accept articles forwarded via email, useful for saving newsletter content or articles shared with you by others without needing to manually open and save each one.
Full-Text Search Across Your Archive
Wallabag indexes saved article content, letting you search across your entire reading archive — useful for rediscovering something you saved but don't remember the exact source of.
Backing Up Wallabag
docker run --rm -v wallabag_wallabag-data:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine tar czf /backup/wallabag-backup.tar.gz /dataCommon Errors
Saved articles show minimal or no content — some sites actively block automated content extraction; this is a limitation of the source site's structure, not typically a Wallabag configuration issue.
Continue Reading
- How to Install FreshRSS (Self-Hosted RSS Reader)
- How to Install Nginx Proxy Manager with Docker
- How to Install Linkwarden (Self-Hosted Bookmark Manager)
Browse more articles in Popular Self-Hosted Applications.
