Optimizing Cloudflare Settings for FeedOtter Content Access

Recommended settings to allow Feedotter's web crawler to access your content and images for use in your newsletter emails.

As more organizations increase their Cloudflare security posture, we’ve noticed a common trend: website content and images can sometimes become inaccessible to FeedOtter.

This means your newsletters may fail to display images or content as expected if Cloudflare blocks our requests. To help prevent disruptions, we’ve updated our recommended Cloudflare settings for all customers. These adjustments will ensure that FeedOtter continues to access your website content securely and reliably—no matter how strict your Cloudflare configuration becomes.

Cloudflare changes its menu and feature name countinously and without notice. We do our best to keep the screenshots up-to-date but feature names and locations may be different than described below.

Overview

Feedotter will access your website, apis, and content sources from the following IP addresses.

104.236.230.137
159.65.245.183

In addition, all of our crawlers use a user-agent that can be authentically identified with the following string.

FeedOtter/2.1

We recommend a contains rule against the Feedotter string.

Rule 1: Allow Hotlinking and Content Access

The first step is to set up a rule under Cloudflare Rules that explicitly allows FeedOtter to access your images and content. This rule ensures that your website will serve images to FeedOtter even when Cloudflare’s hotlink protection is turned on.

This rule guarantees that images hosted on your site can be embedded in your newsletters without being blocked.

Rule 2: Whitelist FeedOtter in Security Rules

Next, head over to Security → Security Rules and create a custom rule specifically for FeedOtter. This rule should whitelist:

• FeedOtter’s IP address

• FeedOtter’s User-Agent

In addition, configure the rule to:

• Skip protection when Super Bot Fight Mode or Alert Mode is enabled

• Allow FeedOtter traffic to bypass additional challenges or restrictions

• Ensure image hotlinking remains accessible

This second rule is especially important because we’ve found that relying on hotlinking rules alone is often not enough when Cloudflare increases its protections. Both rules must run together to ensure uninterrupted access.

IP and User Agent

104.236.230.137
159.65.245.183

//We recommend a contains rule looking for the string:
"FeedOtter/2.1"

Why Both Rules Matter

In today’s security environment, it’s common to see Cloudflare “tightened up” during traffic spikes, security alerts, or when websites enter Under Attack Mode.

Without both rules in place, FeedOtter may lose access to your content when security settings shift. By proactively ensuring these are both in place, you safeguard your newsletters against future disruptions.

💬 Have questions? Contact us at [e-mail].