Optimizing Cloudflare Settings for FeedOtter Content Access (2025)
Important update to ensure FeedOtter continues to work seamlessly for you.
Recently, our team has taken a deep dive into Cloudflare’s latest security features and how they interact with FeedOtter. 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.
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
104.236.230.137Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; FeedOtter/2.1; +http://www.feedotter.com/privacy)
AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/124.0.6367.78 Safari/537.36Why 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 [email protected].
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