13ft Ladder Hosting Live In 5 Minutes

13ft Ladder hosting gives you a private article reader on a server you control. Deploy 13ft Ladder 0.5.0 as a self-hosted article reader: paste an article link and your own server fetches it and returns a clean, ad-free reading view. xCloud runs the pinned image behind a Caddy authentication gateway and HTTPS on your domain, so only people you share the login with can use it.

Deploy your 13ft Ladder

No terminal
No technical skills needed
No lock-in, cancel anytime

What is 13ft Ladder?

Self-hosted 13ft Ladder is an article reader. Its README calls it a simple self-hosted server that fetches the page the way a search crawler would, shows a status page while it works, and tries multiple fallback sources, including archive snapshots. The result is a clean, distraction-free view of an article. The project is similar to 12ft.io and asks you to support the creators you benefit from. It is MIT licensed.

On xCloud the template runs the pinned 13ft Ladder 0.5.0 image behind a small Caddy gateway that enforces HTTP Basic Auth, both pinned by immutable digest, with HTTPS on your domain. There is no database or volume: recently fetched articles are cached in memory for five minutes. It cannot read every site, since some block automated readers and return an anti-bot message.

From Sign-Up to Your First Clean Article In Just 3 Easy Steps

Self-hosting 13ft Ladder normally means an app container, an authentication gateway, a domain and a certificate before you can read a single article privately. This is the same result without assembling any of it.

Step 01
Sign Up
Create your xCloud account and pick 13ft Ladder from the OneClick catalog. Set the Admin Username (defaults to admin) — xCloud generates the password.
Step 02
We Deploy It For You
One click. We bring up the pinned 13ft Ladder image behind a Caddy authentication gateway, and publish it over HTTPS on your domain — the app container itself is never reachable directly.
Step 03
Sign In And Read
Save the username and password from the protected installation credentials, sign in at the browser's login prompt, then paste an article link and press Submit to read it in the clean view.

Everything 13ft Ladder Does, On Your Own Server

13ft Ladder runs in full here — the same clean-reading tooling as any hosted reader-mode service, on infrastructure you control.

Clean, Ad-Free Reading View
Paste any article link and get a clean, readable page back without ads or clutter.
Direct And Scriptable Links
Use the web UI, or link straight to https://your-domain/<article URL> from bookmarks and scripts.
Archive Fallbacks
Falls back to archive.org and archive.today snapshots when a site blocks automated fetching, with a dedicated path for Medium articles.
Light, Dark And Multi-Language UI
Light and dark themes, with the interface available in English, German, French or Korean.
Private By Default
An HTTP Basic Auth gateway protects the whole UI and API, so only people you share credentials with can use your instance.
Nothing To Lose On A Restart
There is no database to restore — the app comes straight back with the same credentials after an xCloud Restart, since the article cache is in-memory by design.

Everything You Need To Run Your Article Reading 24/7

Managed hosting for 13ft Ladder, so the parts that keep it online are not your problem.

13ft Ladder 0.5.0 deployed instantly
Generated access password
Free SSL certificate
Server backups and snapshots
Server security updates included
30+ server locations
Private Caddy auth gateway
Unused balance refunded

What You Can Do With 13ft Ladder

Read one article without the clutter
Paste a link into your own reader and get a clean page back, free of ads and clutter, without installing an extension in every browser you use.
Share one private reader with a household
Give family or colleagues the same username and password, so everyone can use one instance behind HTTPS while strangers get a 401.
Script article links into your workflow
Link straight to https://your-domain/<article URL> from bookmarks and scripts, so a saved link opens the clean view directly.
Run a utility with nothing to maintain
With no database and no volume, there is no data to migrate or restore. An xCloud Restart brings the reader back with the same credentials.

13ft Ladder vs Alternatives

Hosted article readers: 13ft Ladder runs on your own Cloud VPS behind your own password, so article requests leave from your server's address and nothing is stored beyond a five-minute in-memory cache.
Ladder: Ladder is another self-hosted reader project. 13ft Ladder, per its README, shows a status page while it fetches and tries multi-source fallbacks, and this template puts a password gateway in front of it.
Wallabag: Wallabag is a read-it-later app with its own xCloud template that saves articles for later. 13ft Ladder fetches and shows one page at a time and keeps nothing.
Readeck: Readeck is a self-hosted reading library with its own xCloud template that stores what you save. 13ft Ladder is stateless, so it suits quick one-off reading rather than an archive.

Simple Pricing. Everything Included.

Dedicated Cloud VPS sizes, pre-configured for 13ft Ladder hosting. Pick the one that fits, and resize any time.

Cloud VPS 6 GB

Cloud VPS 16 GB

Heavier shared use across more people with the credentials.

$59.99per month

16 GB RAM
6 vCPU cores
200 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Cloud VPS 24 GB

13ft Ladder alongside a whole self-hosted utility stack.

$84.99per month

24 GB RAM
8 vCPU cores
300 GB NVMe SSD
30 TB
Unlimited

Get started

Every size is a dedicated Cloud VPS we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Billed monthly with no lock-in — delete the server and the unused balance comes back to your account. 13ft Ladder itself is free under the MIT licence.

Docker hosting

Already Have a Server? Bring Your Own

Connect any VPS — DigitalOcean, Vultr, Linode, AWS, Hetzner or bare metal — and deploy 13ft Ladder on it through the same panel, for a per-server management fee instead of a Cloud VPS rental.

Free

Start your journey without cost.

$0forever

1 server
10 sites

Start free

Starter

Professional

The same platform, discounted at 6–10 servers.

$4per server / month

6–10 servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Agency

The same platform, discounted at 11+ servers.

$3per server / month

11+ servers
Unlimited sites
All features included
Bring any VPS provider

Get started

Priced per connected server, so your rate adjusts automatically as you add or remove servers. You pay your own provider for the server itself.

Self-managed hosting

Ready For A Private Reader?

13ft Ladder on xCloud runs on a dedicated Cloud VPS that we provision, patch, monitor and restore. Deploy faster. Own the server. Stay in control.

Fast Provisioning
Deploy faster using an xCloud Managed Server built with optimized stacks and high-speed SSDs.
Enterprise-grade security
Protect your infrastructure with a free SSL certificate and more advanced security features at no additional cost.
Intuitive Control Panel
From Server creation to application deployment, everything can be managed from our intuitive control panel.

Hear what people are saying about us

See why agencies, developers, startups, and growing businesses choose xCloud to power their projects.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have.

How much RAM does 13ft Ladder need?

The manifest floor is one core, 256 MB of RAM and a gigabyte of disk, and QA measured about 65 MiB idle. The 6 GB plan on this page clears that by a wide margin, so the reader and its small Caddy gateway share the server with plenty of room to spare.

Is 13ft Ladder open source?

Yes. 13ft Ladder is MIT licensed, per the LICENSE file at the v0.5.0 tag, so the code is free to run. What xCloud bills is the dedicated Cloud VPS, and nothing you fetch is stored by the template beyond a short in-memory cache.

Can you self-host 13ft Ladder with Docker?

Yes, and this is 13ft Ladder Docker hosting prepared for you. Upstream's README shows docker compose and an image on Docker Hub and ghcr.io; the template runs the pinned app image beside a Caddy gateway, both by immutable digest, with HTTPS on your domain and no volume at all.

How does 13ft Ladder work?

Per its README, the server fetches the article the way Google's crawler does, shows a loading page while it works, and tries multiple fallback sources if the first approach fails. It returns a clean reading view of the page. The README asks readers to support the creators they benefit from.

Is 13ft Ladder a self-hosted version of 12ft.io?

Its README describes it as a site similar to 12ft.io that is self-hosted and works with websites that 12ft.io does not. It is a separate project, so features differ. Here it runs privately on your own Cloud VPS, behind a password, rather than as a public service.

Why does 13ft Ladder fail on some sites?

Some sites block automated readers and return an anti-bot message when no archive snapshot exists. The app tries archive.org and archive.today snapshots, and a Medium-specific mirror, before reporting that the site blocks automated requests. That is upstream behaviour, not an xCloud limitation.

Is my self-hosted 13ft Ladder public?

No. The whole interface and API sit behind HTTP Basic Auth, and anonymous requests to the UI and fetch API are rejected with 401 in testing. Use the username and generated password from your installation credentials, and share them only with people you trust.

Does 13ft Ladder store anything I need to back up?

No. There is no database and no volume: fetched articles are cached in memory for about five minutes and cleared on restart, so there is no backup to take and nothing to restore. Keep the credentials from your installation panel somewhere safe instead.

Can I rotate the credentials or change the language?

Yes. Change ADMIN_USERNAME and ADMIN_PASSWORD in the Environment editor and redeploy to rotate the login whenever you need to. The LOCALE setting switches the interface between English, German, French and Korean, and a light or dark theme is available.

How do I upgrade 13ft Ladder?

Nothing upgrades it for you: the template pins 0.5.0 by immutable digest. Read the upstream release notes, then adopt a newer xCloud template version when one ships. There is no volume or app data to back up first, so an upgrade keeps the same credentials.

Is this 13ft Ladder cloud hosting?

It is your own reader on a dedicated Cloud VPS that xCloud provisions, not a shared public service. The app, the Caddy gateway and the credentials belong to your install, and requests to fetch an article leave from your server's address.

Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no lock-in — cancel any time. Hosting is billed monthly and charged for what you actually use, so when you delete the server the unused balance is refunded to your account, less up to 10% in payment-processing fees.