App Guides

NZBHydra on a Seedbox: Meta-Search for Usenet Indexers

NZBHydra is a meta-search front-end for Usenet indexers. Add all your providers once, search across all of them. Here's how it runs on a Bytesized seedbox.

What NZBHydra Is

NZBHydra2 sits in front of your Usenet indexers and lets you search across all of them from a single interface. Think of it as Prowlarr for Usenet, with deeper search features and stats.

You add your indexers (NZBGeek, DrunkenSlug, NZB.cat, whatever you have) once in NZBHydra, then point Sonarr and Radarr at NZBHydra instead of at each indexer individually. Sonarr asks NZBHydra for a release; NZBHydra fans the search out to all your indexers and returns the best matches.

Why Run It on a Seedbox?

NZBHydra needs to be reachable from Sonarr, Radarr, and your browser, and it caches a lot of search history. A seedbox covers that:

Installing NZBHydra

Open the Bytesized Panel, find NZBHydra in the app catalog, click install. The panel handles the install, the reverse proxy, and gives you a clean HTTPS URL.

Click "Open" to land on the dashboard.

First-Run Setup

The setup walks through:

  1. Add indexers. Settings > Indexers > Add. Plug in each indexer's API URL and API key. NZBHydra has presets for the most common ones, so you usually pick from a list.
  2. Pick categories to handle. Default is all of them. Trim if there's something you don't care about.
  3. Set up auth. NZBHydra's web UI has its own auth. Set a strong password; this is what Sonarr and Radarr will use too.

Once indexers are wired in, hit "Test connection" on each one to verify they're returning results.

Sonarr / Radarr Integration

The clean way: instead of adding each indexer separately in Sonarr and Radarr, you add NZBHydra as a single Newznab indexer.

In Sonarr's Settings > Indexers > Add > Newznab:

Same in Radarr. NZBHydra now handles all your indexer routing for both apps.

Stats and Logging

NZBHydra keeps stats on every indexer: hit rate, download stats, response time. Useful for figuring out which indexer is pulling its weight and which is dead weight.

Find this under the Stats menu inside the app. If you're paying for indexers, the stats tell you which ones to keep and which to drop.

Prowlarr vs NZBHydra

These overlap. Prowlarr handles both Torrent and Usenet indexers; NZBHydra is Usenet-only.

Both work. Prowlarr has wider use these days; NZBHydra has the more thorough search features for Usenet specifically.

For the broader picture, see the Prowlarr guide.

Common Gotchas

Indexer says "Auth failed." API key wrong, or you've hit the daily API limit. Most paid indexers cap at 100 to 5000 API hits per day depending on tier.

Sonarr says "Indexer down." Test inside NZBHydra first. If NZBHydra returns results, the issue is in Sonarr's connection. Use the internal URL, not the public HTTPS one.

Search returns nothing. Check the categories selected for the indexer in NZBHydra match the categories Sonarr is asking for. Mismatch means no results.

Slow searches. One slow indexer drags the whole thing down. NZBHydra has per-indexer timeouts; lower them under Settings > Searching.

FAQ

Is NZBHydra free? Yes. Free and open source.

Will it work with Sonarr and Radarr? Yes. They see it as a single Newznab indexer.

Does it find torrents too? No. Usenet only. For torrents, Prowlarr or Jackett.

How many indexers can I add? Unlimited. NZBHydra fans searches out in parallel; more indexers means more chances of a hit.

Should I use NZBHydra or Prowlarr? Prowlarr if you want one tool for both Usenet and torrents. NZBHydra if you only do Usenet and want richer stats.

Ready to Set It Up?

Browse Appbox plans, install NZBHydra from the panel, plug in your indexers, point Sonarr and Radarr at it.

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