Important Update: Changes to Free Feed Creator Service

Feed Creator’s previously free feed service is transitioning to become a part of Feed Control. As part of the transition we will be rolling out new features that will make feed creation significantly easier.

New Features

• AI-assisted item detection, complementing our existing simple and advanced selectors — now available!

• Headless browser content retrieval for JavaScript-dependent sites — now available!

• Visual point-and-click interface for selecting items when AI assistance is not enough — coming in March.

Discontinuing the Free Service

While these features will substantially improve the service, they require additional resources to operate and maintain. As a result, we are phasing out the free Feed Creator service.

Who This Affects

This affects Feed Creator users who have created feeds without a paid plan. If you fall in this category and wish to keep your feeds active, without changing the feed URLs, please read on for instructions.

Feed Creator users on an existing paid plan can continue using the service as before.

Timeline

Effective Immediately:

• All new feeds should be added to a Feed Control plan, or created with an existing Feed Creator access key, to receive updates

• New Feed Control users can try the service with a free 7-day trial

• Existing Feed Creator feeds will continue to update as normal — whether created on a paid plan or created free

Starting January 15 17, 2025:

• Feed Creator feeds not connected to a paid plan will require a Feed Control account to continue to function

• Users can add their existing Feed Creator feed URLs to Feed Control to maintain feed updates without URL changes

• AI-assisted item detection becomes available

• Headless browser retrieval becomes available

February March 2025:

• Point-and-click interface rolls out

• Further information will be sent regarding the transition of the old plans to Feed Control

To ensure a smooth transition, we encourage you to explore our Feed Control plans and take advantage of the trial period.

Adding new feeds to Feed Control

We have updated the Feed Creator interface to direct you to Feed Control when you want to save a feed. The steps are as follows:

1. Visit Feed Creator

2. Paste a page URL in the URL field

3. Keep automatic (AI) mode selected or enter selectors manually

4. Click Preview to make sure page items are detected correctly for the feed

5. Click Add to Feed Control

6. In Feed Control you’ll have a few more steps to go through where you can set additional options, e.g. full-text fetching, filters

7. Click Save

8. You’ll then be able to find the Feed Control-generated feed to use in your feed reader or application in the feed’s details view.

   

9. Click RSS to see a preview of the RSS feed and also the URL you can use.
   
   Note: We recommend using the feed generated by Feed Control. And if you’ve enabled full-text fetching or any other Feed Control-specific output settings, only the Feed Control-generated feed will have those. But if you prefer the Feed Creator-generated feed, you can use that instead by going to the Source tab and copying the URL from the Feed URL field. Any Feed Creator feeds registered in Feed Control will automatically update at their original Feed Creator URL, even after these changes.

Adding existing feeds to Feed Control

To add a previously-created Feed Creator feed to Feed Control, follow the steps below. This will ensure the previously created feed URL continues to be updated:

1. Go to Feed Control’s Add Feed page

2. Copy your Feed Creator feed URL (beginning with createfeed.fivefilters.org) and paste it into Feed URL field

3. Click Next

4. Check Preview and apply filters and/or enable full-text fetching if needed. Click Next when you’re ready

5. In Alerts and Integrations you can decide if you want to be notified when new items are detected. Click Next

6. Click Save and then click Manage Feed (if you don’t have a Feed Control account, you’ll be directed to the registration screen first).

7. In the Feed Detail’s view, click the Generate RSS/JSON tab to find the Feed Control-generated feed URL you can use.
   
   Note: We recommend using the feed generated by Feed Control. And if you’ve enabled full-text fetching or any other Feed Control-specific output settings, only the Feed Control-generated feed will have those. But if you prefer the Feed Creator-generated feed, e.g. maybe you need more time to update feed URLs, or the feeds were added for clients on systems that you cannot update easily, you can keep using the previous feed URL. Any Feed Creator feeds added to a Feed Control account will automatically update at their original Feed Creator URL.

Self-hosted Feed Creator

We are still supporting the self-hosted version of Feed Creator, and will continue to update it. The changes above only affect our hosted service. If you’re hosting Feed Creator on your own server, your feeds are not affected.

Frequently Asked Questions

→ We have a lot of feeds generated with Feed Creator. Can we send them all to you to add to our Feed Control account, to ensure that they continue receiving updates?

Yes! Simply choose a plan type that can accommodate all your feeds and email us the list at help@feedcontrol.app. We’ll add them to your account. (If you need to increase the feed limit, please contact us and we’ll be able to give you a quote based on the number you need.)

→ How do I know if a feed was created with Feed Creator’s hosted service?

Feeds created with Feed Creator’s hosted service begin with:

https://createfeed.fivefilters.org

→ How do I find the feeds I created with Feed Creator?

Unlike Feed Control, Feed Creator does not maintain a list of feeds you have created. This is by design. Feed Creator users register the feed URLs generated by Feed Creator in their own applications, e.g. a feed reader or custom app. So you will need to look through your feed reader or app to find your Feed Creator feeds — see previous question about how to identify them.

→ What happens to old feeds created with Feed Creator?

If they were made on a paid plan, and the plan is active, they will continue to update and work as normal.

If they were made without a paid plan, they will stop returning items after January 15 17. To re-activate such feeds, you can add them to a Feed Control account.

→ How do I know if my Feed Creator feed is connected with a paid plan?

Feeds connected to a paid plan contain &key=, following by a code, somewhere in the URL. For example:

https://createfeed.fivefilters.org/extract.php?url=…&key=xxxx

→ How do I find the generated feed URL for a feed in Feed Control?

Once you’ve added a feed to Feed Control, go into its details, and you’ll be able to find a Generate RSS/JSON section.

Click the RSS link to see a preview of your generated feed and its URL.

→ How do I find the URL for the source feed in Feed Control?

Click the Source tab and you’ll see it listed next to Feed URL. If you plan to use the Feed Creator-generated version, this is the one you’ll want to use.

Thank you

If you have any more questions about these changes or need assistance with the transition, please don't hesitate to reach out. Our support team is ready to help at help@feedcontrol.app

Thank you for your continued support as we work to provide you with an even better Feed Creator service.