Tiny Tiny RSS shuts down on November 1 amid declining infrastructure support

Open-source RSS reader Tiny Tiny RSS will dismantle its entire infrastructure on November 1, 2025. Developer Andrew Dolgov announced the shutdown on October 3, stating fundamental disinterest in maintaining public-facing projects and websites.

The announcement affects tt-rss.org, cgit repositories, community forums, and related services. Users have one month to mirror repositories from gitlab.tt-rss.org and git.tt-rss.org before permanent removal. The forum will operate in read-only mode during this transition period.

Dolgov cited multiple reasons for the decision, with technical maintenance proving particularly burdensome. The developer stated the project has been functionally complete for years, and routine tasks like PHP version updates provide no engagement. This represents a common trajectory for open-source projects where initial innovation gives way to maintenance responsibilities that fail to sustain developer interest.

The infrastructure shutdown extends beyond the core application. Dolgov's personal tt-rss instance will no longer be publicly accessible, affecting users who relied on this hosted option. The community forum, which served as the primary support channel, will be archived but no longer accept new posts or questions.

RSS technology has faced persistent challenges from major technology platforms. Google discontinued Google Reader on July 1, 2013, eliminating the dominant feed aggregator that had captured significant market share. The shutdown forced millions of users to find alternatives, fragmenting the RSS reader ecosystem. Industry observers noted that Google Reader was "successful and growing" at the time of its closure, suggesting strategic rather than performance-based motivations.

Google's actions against RSS infrastructure continued beyond Reader. The company removed RSS support from Google Groups in 2021 without notice, breaking feeds that had functioned for years. In March 2025, Google News stopped using RSS feeds submitted through Publisher Center, transitioning to automatically generated publication pages. This eliminated a key distribution channel that publishers had relied upon for content syndication.

An August 2025 proposal from Google engineers targeted XSLT removal from web browsers through WHATWG, directly threatening RSS feed display capabilities. The proposal marked Google's second major XSLT removal attempt since 2013, with Mozilla support from multiple employees. Over 500 million WordPress websites automatically generate RSS feeds, while the podcast ecosystem depends entirely on RSS XML for content distribution to platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.

Marketing professionals rely on RSS infrastructure for content monitoring and competitive intelligence. The technology enables automated tracking of industry developments, competitor announcements, and market trends without requiring manual website visits. RSS feeds integrate with email marketing systems, converting feed content into newsletters and automated distribution workflows. Publishers use RSS for SEO benefits through content syndication, reaching audiences across multiple platforms simultaneously.

Tiny Tiny RSS emerged as a leading self-hosted alternative following Google Reader's closure. The platform gained significant attention in 2013 when major technology publications reviewed it as a replacement option. PC Magazine, Lifehacker, and TechRepublic examined its capabilities, praising versatility while noting installation complexity and performance limitations. The application provided control over personal data and privacy compared to third-party services, aligning with growing concerns about data ownership.

The application's technical architecture required users to install and maintain their own web servers. This approach attracted technically proficient users but created barriers for mainstream adoption. Written in PHP and released under GPL-3.0-or-later license, the software supported feed aggregation, keyboard shortcuts, OPML import/export, and multiple sharing methods. Features included podcast support, flexible article filtering, and JSON API access for third-party integrations.

User responses on platforms like Reddit indicate migration to alternatives like FreshRSS and Miniflux. One user reported having used tt-rss for over a year after moving from subscription services, expressing frustration with the timing. Community members began archiving repositories immediately, with one developer creating a torrent containing all 175MB of tt-rss repositories from git.tt-rss.org. The torrent initiative aims to preserve the codebase permanently through distributed hosting.

Technical specifications for the application included support for organizing feeds by folders and subfolders, deduplication through perceptual hashing for images, and embedding full article content via readability. The platform offered extensive customization through plugins and themes, with development occurring on GitLab while code checkout was recommended through CGit. The software used continuous development based on the git master branch, considered stable despite the absence of traditional versioned releases.

Installation requirements mandated modern web browsers, typically recent Chrome or compatible options, and servers running Docker infrastructure. The Docker installation guide represented the recommended deployment method, reflecting industry trends toward containerized applications. However, Dolgov noted there was "no warranty" and users would "get to keep both parts" if issues arose, acknowledging the experimental nature of self-hosted deployments.

The broader technology landscape shows declining support for open protocols. WHATWG introduced Fetch API in 2015 excluding XML processing methods while providing JSON support. Mozilla removed RSS support from Firefox version 64 in 2018, actively preventing feed display and treating them worse than generic XML documents. Google announced Extension Manifest V3 changes in 2019 that restricted RSS feed reader browser extensions.

Platform consolidation has accelerated as technology companies prioritize controlled distribution channels. Social media platforms replaced RSS as the primary content discovery mechanism for most users, offering algorithmic curation instead of chronological feeds. These platforms generate revenue through advertising integrated with user-generated content, while RSS feeds provide no inherent monetization opportunities for platform operators.

Content creators face mounting pressure to abandon RSS in favor of platform-specific distribution. Email newsletters have gained prominence, offering direct audience relationships and engagement metrics unavailable through RSS. Analytics show email subscribers generate approximately twice the activity rate of RSS readers on a per-subscriber basis, influencing publisher decisions about resource allocation and promotional emphasis.

The infrastructure requirements for maintaining RSS services create ongoing costs without corresponding revenue streams. Server hosting, bandwidth, security updates, and technical support demand continuous investment. Individual developers like Dolgov face these expenses while managing feature requests, bug reports, and compatibility issues across diverse environments and use cases.

Development communities often struggle to maintain projects after initial contributors lose interest. The transition from active development to maintenance mode proves particularly challenging for projects requiring infrastructure beyond the codebase itself. Forums, documentation sites, and demonstration instances all require ongoing attention and resources that individual developers may be unable or unwilling to provide indefinitely.

Users seeking alternatives face fragmented options with varying feature sets and reliability levels. FreshRSS offers self-hosted capabilities similar to Tiny Tiny RSS, while Miniflux provides a minimalist approach to feed reading. Commercial services like Feedly have expanded beyond basic RSS reading to include AI-powered features, content discovery, and team collaboration tools. However, these platforms introduce dependence on third-party services and potential privacy concerns that self-hosted solutions were designed to avoid.

The technical community has responded with preservation efforts and fork discussions. Some users expressed interest in maintaining the codebase through community-driven development, though no concrete plans have emerged. The one-month notice period allows for repository archiving and migration planning, but the loss of the forum and official documentation represents a significant knowledge gap for future users.

Financial sustainability remains a central challenge for open-source infrastructure projects. While many users benefit from free software, the costs of maintenance fall on individual developers or organizations. Donation models and paid support services provide some funding, but rarely match the resources required for long-term sustainability. This imbalance contributes to project abandonment and infrastructure shutdowns like the one affecting Tiny Tiny RSS.

The shutdown affects an estimated several thousand active users based on forum activity and community engagement patterns. While the core software will remain available through archived repositories, the loss of centralized support infrastructure complicates future adoption and troubleshooting. New users will face increased difficulty finding documentation and assistance, potentially accelerating the shift toward commercial alternatives or abandonment of RSS altogether.

Legacy instances of tt-rss will continue functioning on existing installations, but without security updates or bug fixes. This creates potential vulnerabilities for users maintaining older versions, particularly given the PHP language's frequent security updates and breaking changes across versions. The announcement specifically mentioned that bumping PHP versions and fixing breakages had become the primary maintenance activity, illustrating the ongoing effort required to keep the software operational.

Developer burnout represents a pervasive issue in open-source communities. The combination of public expectations, maintenance demands, and lack of compensation creates unsustainable conditions for individual contributors. Dolgov's statement about no longer finding it "fun to maintain public-facing anything" reflects broader patterns where enthusiasm gives way to obligation, eventually leading to project abandonment.

Timeline

• August 22, 2005: Andrew Dolgov releases initial version of Tiny Tiny RSS
• March 13, 2013: Google announces Google Reader shutdown, driving users to alternatives like tt-rss
• July 1, 2013: Google Reader officially closes, Tiny Tiny RSS gains prominence as replacement option
• July 12, 2013: Tiny Tiny RSS updates license from GPL-2.0 to GPL-3.0-or-later
• 2018: Mozilla removes RSS support from Firefox, limiting feed display options
• August 2021: Google removes RSS support from Google Groups without notice
• March 2025: Google News stops using RSS feeds from Publisher Center
• August 20, 2025: Google proposes XSLT removal targeting RSS display capabilities
• September 14, 2025: Google eliminates n=100 SERP parameter, impacting data access for SEO platforms
• October 3, 2025: Andrew Dolgov announces November 1 shutdown of tt-rss infrastructure
• November 1, 2025: Complete dismantling of tt-rss.org, repositories, forums, and related services

Summary

Who: Andrew Dolgov, the developer of Tiny Tiny RSS, announced the infrastructure shutdown affecting the open-source RSS feed reader's users and community.

What: Complete dismantling of tt-rss.org infrastructure including repositories at gitlab.tt-rss.org and git.tt-rss.org, community forums, cgit services, and related websites. The forum will operate in read-only mode until removal.

When: Announced on October 3, 2025, with infrastructure shutdown scheduled for November 1, 2025. Users have one month to mirror repositories and migrate to alternatives.

Where: The shutdown affects all tt-rss.org infrastructure globally, including the primary website, code repositories, community forums, and Dolgov's personal tt-rss instance that was publicly accessible.

Why: Dolgov stated he no longer finds it engaging to maintain public-facing projects or websites. The project has been functionally complete for years, with maintenance reduced to updating PHP versions and fixing compatibility issues, which he describes as "not engaging in the slightest."