Holy shit... Someone built a free self-hosted tool that lets you...
Brady Long@thisguyknowsai
24 views
May 08, 2026
~2 min read
Advertisement
1
Holy shit... Someone built a free self-hosted tool that lets you read any paywalled article instantly by routing it through a proxy that strips the paywall before the page ever loads in your browser.
It's called Ladder and it's the open-source alternative to 12ft that you actually own and control.
Here's everything you need to know:
It's called Ladder and it's the open-source alternative to 12ft that you actually own and control.
Here's everything you need to know:
2
Here's the trick publishers accidentally built into their own paywall.
To rank on Google, they have to let Google's crawler read the full article so it can be indexed.
Ladder sends requests using the exact same crawler headers Google uses.
The paywall sees a search engine bot. You see the full article.
Publishers created this gap themselves.
To rank on Google, they have to let Google's crawler read the full article so it can be indexed.
Ladder sends requests using the exact same crawler headers Google uses.
The paywall sees a search engine bot. You see the full article.
Publishers created this gap themselves.
3
The New York Times charges $17/month.
The Wall Street Journal charges $38/month.
Bloomberg Terminal charges $24,000/year.
Ladder reads all of them for $0.
And unlike 12ft.io, which is a third-party service that can shut down or get hit with a cease and desist tomorrow, Ladder runs on your own machine. Nobody can take it away.
The Wall Street Journal charges $38/month.
Bloomberg Terminal charges $24,000/year.
Ladder reads all of them for $0.
And unlike 12ft.io, which is a third-party service that can shut down or get hit with a cease and desist tomorrow, Ladder runs on your own machine. Nobody can take it away.
4
Here's what you get out of the box:
→ Strips paywalls from any article URL instantly
→ Removes CORS headers so fetched content works inside any app or script
→ Deploys via Docker in one command on a $5 VPS
→ Configurable rulesets to handle different publications differently
→ Helm chart included for Kubernetes deployment
→ Single Go binary, zero runtime dependencies
Setup takes less than 2 minutes.
→ Strips paywalls from any article URL instantly
→ Removes CORS headers so fetched content works inside any app or script
→ Deploys via Docker in one command on a $5 VPS
→ Configurable rulesets to handle different publications differently
→ Helm chart included for Kubernetes deployment
→ Single Go binary, zero runtime dependencies
Setup takes less than 2 minutes.
5
Try it here: github.com/everywall/ladd…
6
AI is not going to take your job.
Instead, it's going to make you rich and help you build businesses online.
You need to know the best tools, and that's all.
We can help you find the best business AI tools.
Check our tools directory today:
aimarketing.directory
Instead, it's going to make you rich and help you build businesses online.
You need to know the best tools, and that's all.
We can help you find the best business AI tools.
Check our tools directory today:
aimarketing.directory
7
Looking for more posts like this?
Follow me @thisguyknowsai and you'll get 1x post every single day.
And don't forget to repost the thread to reach more.
Thanks for checking!
x.com/13903459320011…
Follow me @thisguyknowsai and you'll get 1x post every single day.
And don't forget to repost the thread to reach more.
Thanks for checking!
x.com/13903459320011…
