---
title: "Free Ruby Reddit Bot Hosting"
description: "Host a Ruby Reddit bot free on Ruby 3.2 to 4.0. Net::HTTP or the redd gem, with SQLite for what is handled. 25% CPU, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB disk, 24/7 uptime."
url: "https://sillydev.co.uk/ruby-reddit-bot-hosting"
updated: "2026-11-10"
---

Ruby

# Free Ruby Reddit bot hosting.

Reddit's API is OAuth and JSON over HTTPS, and Ruby's standard library can call it. A polling bot can run with a very short Gemfile.

Libraries

## Libraries that run here

Plain Net::HTTP

A token request, a listing poll and a reply are the whole bot, and the standard library does all three. It is also the route that cannot be broken by a gem falling behind the API.

redd

A Ruby wrapper for the Reddit API, if you would rather have methods than hand-built requests. Check how recently it was released before you rely on it, as Reddit has changed its API terms more than once.

SQLite

The other half of a Reddit bot: a table of IDs already handled, so a restart never produces a duplicate reply.

Deploying

## Getting it running

1. 1
### Upload your project
Drag the folder into the file manager or push it over SFTP. Gems install into a folder inside your server, so there is no need to upload a vendor directory. If you use only the standard library there is no Gemfile to upload.
2. 2
### bundle install runs for you
When a Gemfile is present, Bundler installs it before the bot starts and skips the install on later restarts until the Gemfile changes. With no Gemfile there is nothing to install and the bot starts straight away.
3. 3
### Point us at your entry file
bot.rb or main.rb. Credentials come from environment variables, read with ENV.fetch.

Memory

## What actually fits in 256 MB

All of it, comfortably. A Reddit bot spends most of its life waiting between polls, and a listing response is a small piece of JSON.

Keep the handled-IDs set in SQLite on your 512 MB of disk rather than in a Set in memory. It never grows your footprint, and it is what makes restarts safe.

FAQ

## Questions

**Do I need a gem to talk to Reddit?**

No. The endpoints a bot uses are a handful of JSON calls behind OAuth, and Net::HTTP covers them.

**How should the bot handle Reddit being down?**

Rescue errors inside each poll so a failure waits and retries rather than raising out of the loop. If the process does exit it is restarted, and the handled-IDs table means it picks up without repeating itself.

**Do gems with native extensions work?**

Yes for the common ones. The image has a compiler and the headers for SQLite, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, libxml and OpenSSL, so gems such as nokogiri, pg, mysql2 and sqlite3 build when bundle install runs. The first start after you change your Gemfile takes longer while they compile; later starts skip the install.

**Where should the secrets live?**

In environment variables set on the server, read with ENV.fetch. A .env file uploaded with your code sits in your file manager like any other file, and Ruby does not read one by itself unless you add a gem such as dotenv for it.

More on Reddit bots

- [Python→](https://sillydev.co.uk/python-reddit-bot-hosting)
- [Node.js→](https://sillydev.co.uk/nodejs-reddit-bot-hosting)
- [Bun→](https://sillydev.co.uk/bun-reddit-bot-hosting)
- [Reddit bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/reddit-bot-hosting)

Hosting something else?

- [Discord bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/discord-bot-hosting)
- [Minecraft bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/minecraft-bot-hosting)
- [Telegram bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/telegram-bot-hosting)
- [Twitch bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/twitch-bot-hosting)
- [Bluesky bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/bluesky-bot-hosting)
- [Twitter (X) bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/twitter-bot-hosting)
- [WhatsApp bots→](https://sillydev.co.uk/whatsapp-bot-hosting)

Control it from code

- [Bot hosting with an API→](https://sillydev.co.uk/guides/bot-hosting-with-an-api)
- [API docs→](https://sillydev.co.uk/docs/panel)