Fredy review 2026: a free, self-hosted real estate scraper that alerts you to new German apartment listings. See features, setup, and alternatives.
Category
Automation
Pricing
Open Source / Free, from Free
Verified
Not yet
Last updated
July 18, 2026
Free PlanWeb AppAPIOpen SourceSelf-Hosted
Overview
Fredy ('Find Real Estate Damn Easy') is a free, open-source, self-hosted tool that continuously scrapes German real estate portals including ImmoScout24, Immowelt, Immonet, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and WG-Gesucht, and instantly notifies users of new matching listings.
It is maintained on GitHub under the orangecoding organization and licensed under Apache-2.0. It is not a commercial company but a community-maintained self-hosted project popular in home-lab and self-hosting circles.
Key Features
Fredy runs scheduled scrapes across multiple German listing portals simultaneously, de-duplicates results in a local database, and pushes new matches via Slack, Telegram, Discord, email, or ntfy.
Built on Node.js and Puppeteer with bot-detection workarounds, it ships as a Docker container and, in newer releases, includes a built-in MCP server for AI assistant integration.
Pricing
Fredy is completely free and open source, with no subscription tiers or paid features. The only cost is the infrastructure the user provides to run the Docker container, such as a home server, NAS, or small VPS.
Key Features
Multi-portal scraping — Simultaneously searches ImmoScout24, Immowelt, Immonet, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and WG-Gesucht for new listings matching saved criteria.
Instant multi-channel notifications — Sends alerts through Slack, Telegram, Discord, email, or ntfy as soon as a new matching listing is found.
Duplicate detection — Stores seen listings in a local database so the same property is never reported more than once.
Bot-detection workarounds — Uses Puppeteer-based browser automation with fingerprint cloaking and, for some portals, reverse-engineered mobile APIs to reliably scrape sites with anti-bot protections.
Docker-based self-hosting — Distributed as a container image with mounted volumes for configuration and database, making it easy to run on home servers, NAS devices, or Unraid.
Configurable saved searches — Users define multiple search profiles with location, price, and property criteria across different portals.
MCP server integration — Recent releases include a built-in Model Context Protocol server so AI assistants can query Fredy's listing and search data.
Open-source and self-hosted — Fully open codebase under Apache-2.0 that users can audit, modify, and run entirely on their own infrastructure.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Completely free with no subscription cost beyond the user's own hosting infrastructure
Aggregates multiple German real estate portals into a single unified alert stream
Notifies faster than manually refreshing listing sites, which matters in competitive rental markets
Open-source codebase can be audited, self-hosted, and extended by technically capable users
Supports popular self-hosted notification channels like ntfy and Discord alongside mainstream ones like email
Cons
Requires Docker and basic self-hosting or command-line comfort to set up and maintain
Scoped specifically to German real estate portals, with no support for other countries' listing sites
Relies on web scraping, which can break when target portals change their site structure or anti-bot defenses
No official commercial support, SLA, or customer service, since it is a volunteer-maintained project
No official hosted or managed version, so users must provide and maintain their own server
Pricing
Free (Open Source) Free N/A
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fredy free to use?
Yes, Fredy is fully open source and free under the Apache-2.0 license. The only cost is the infrastructure needed to self-host it, such as a home server or small VPS.
What real estate portals does Fredy support?
Fredy scrapes ImmoScout24, Immowelt, Immonet, eBay Kleinanzeigen, and WG-Gesucht, all major German real estate listing platforms.
How do I install Fredy?
Fredy is distributed as a Docker container image and can be deployed with a simple docker run command, or installed as a community app on platforms like Unraid.
What notification channels does Fredy support?
Fredy can send alerts via Slack, Telegram, Discord, email, or ntfy, a lightweight self-hosted push notification service.
Is Fredy only for real estate in Germany?
Yes, all of the platforms Fredy currently scrapes are German real estate portals, so it is primarily useful for people searching for housing in Germany.
Who maintains Fredy?
Fredy is maintained as an open-source project on GitHub under the orangecoding organization, without a dedicated company behind it.