Redirect RSS Feeds To Follow.it With .htaccess

Google shut down Feedburner’s management interface, leaving it in indefinite maintenance mode. While RSS remains a critical format for feed distribution across platforms like WordPress and other CMS software, you need an alternative service for feed management and subscriber tracking.

follow.it is a solid Feedburner replacement that handles RSS feeds, subscriptions, and analytics. This guide shows how to redirect your feed URLs to follow.it using .htaccess — a method that works regardless of your CMS or hosting setup.

How the Redirect Works

The core strategy uses Apache’s mod_rewrite to detect the requesting client:

Requests from follow.it: Pass through untouched so follow.it receives the original feed content from your server
Requests from browsers or readers: Redirect to your follow.it feed URL so users subscribe there instead

This keeps follow.it subscribed to your authoritative feed while directing human visitors to the managed feed service.

Implementation

Add this block to your .htaccess file in your site’s root directory (adjust the path if your feed lives elsewhere):

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/feed [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !follow\.it [NC]
    RewriteRule ^feed/?.*$ https://follow.it/systut [L,R=302]
</IfModule>

Replace https://follow.it/systut with your actual follow.it feed URL. The [NC] flag makes pattern matching case-insensitive, and [L,R=302] tells Apache to stop processing and send a temporary redirect.

Key points:

The RewriteCond for HTTP_USER_AGENT uses ! to negate — meaning “if the User-Agent does NOT contain follow.it”
The pattern ^feed/?.*$ matches /feed, /feed/, and any feed variants like /feed/json
Use R=302 (temporary redirect) rather than R=301 (permanent) until you’re confident the redirect works correctly

Testing Your Setup

Test with curl to verify follow.it can access the feed:

curl -A "follow.it/1.0" https://yourdomain.com/feed

This should return your XML feed content without redirecting.

Then test as a regular browser:

curl -A "Mozilla/5.0" https://yourdomain.com/feed -i

You should see a 302 response with a Location header pointing to follow.it.

WordPress-Specific Considerations

WordPress creates multiple feed endpoints: /feed, /feed/rss2, /feed/json, and category/tag feeds like /category/tech/feed. Your regex should catch them all:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/feed [NC]
    RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/wp-admin [NC]
    RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} !follow\.it [NC]
    RewriteRule ^.*feed/?.*$ https://follow.it/yourusername [L,R=302]
</IfModule>

The !^/wp-admin condition prevents redirecting dashboard requests.

Switching Back Later

If you ever need to discontinue follow.it, simply comment out or remove the rewrite block. Your feed URLs revert to normal operation immediately since no permanent (301) redirects were issued.

Troubleshooting

Redirects not working: Verify mod_rewrite is enabled with apache2ctl -M | grep rewrite. Some hosts disable it.

Infinite loops: This won’t happen with the User-Agent check, but if it does, your regex is probably matching something unexpected. Test patterns at regex101.com first.

Follow.it can’t reach your feed: Confirm your follow.it account is using the correct URL (usually your domain’s /feed path, not the follow.it URL itself).

2026 Comprehensive Guide: Best Practices

This extended guide covers Redirect RSS Feeds to follow.it with .htaccess with advanced techniques and troubleshooting tips for 2026. Following modern best practices ensures reliable, maintainable, and secure systems.

Advanced Implementation Strategies

For complex deployments, consider these approaches: Infrastructure as Code for reproducible environments, container-based isolation for dependency management, and CI/CD pipelines for automated testing and deployment. Always document your custom configurations and maintain separate development, staging, and production environments.

Security and Hardening

Security is foundational to all system administration. Implement layered defense: network segmentation, host-based firewalls, intrusion detection, and regular security audits. Use SSH key-based authentication instead of passwords. Encrypt sensitive data at rest and in transit. Follow the principle of least privilege for access controls.

Performance Optimization

Monitor resources continuously with tools like top, htop, iotop
Profile application performance before and after optimizations
Use caching strategically: application caches, database query caching, CDN for static assets
Optimize database queries with proper indexing and query analysis
Implement connection pooling for network services

Troubleshooting Methodology

Follow a systematic approach to debugging: reproduce the issue, isolate variables, check logs, test fixes. Keep detailed logs and document solutions found. For intermittent issues, add monitoring and alerting. Use verbose modes and debug flags when needed.

Related Tools and Utilities

These tools complement the techniques covered in this article:

System monitoring: htop, vmstat, iostat, dstat for resource tracking
Network analysis: tcpdump, wireshark, netstat, ss for connectivity debugging
Log management: journalctl, tail, less for log analysis
File operations: find, locate, fd, tree for efficient searching
Package management: dnf, apt, rpm, zypper for package operations

Integration with Modern Workflows

Modern operations emphasize automation, observability, and version control. Use orchestration tools like Ansible, Terraform, or Kubernetes for infrastructure. Implement centralized logging and metrics. Maintain comprehensive documentation for all systems and processes.

Quick Reference Summary

This comprehensive guide provides extended knowledge for Redirect RSS Feeds to follow.it with .htaccess. For specialized requirements, refer to official documentation. Practice in test environments before production deployment. Keep backups of critical configurations and data.