Cloudflared
Cloudflared is the official command-line client for Cloudflare Tunnel, a tunneling daemon that proxies traffic from the Cloudflare network to your local…
Platform availability
Available on 7 of 9 platforms
Health score?A 0-100 score computed nightly from four factors: maintained (40%: recent commits and steady activity), popular (25%: GitHub stars, log scale), easy to install (20%: platforms, install notes, setup guides, Docker image) and light to run (15%: minimum RAM, ARM support). When the source code has been checked, a fifth factor, security check (20%: automated scan for committed secrets, unsafe desktop-app settings, known-vulnerable dependencies and project hygiene; any serious finding caps it at 20), is added. Factors without data are left out and the rest are rescaled.
84/100 Excellent
- Maintained
- 100last commit 15 days ago
- Popular
- 8415,953 GitHub stars
- Easy to install
- 857 install platforms, install notes, Docker image
- Light to run
- 404 GB minimum RAM, runs on ARM
Availability: platform listings confirmed today, links checked 14 days ago
- GitHub stars
- 15,953
- Open issues
- 548
- Last commit
- 2026-09-28
- Latest release
- 2026.9.3
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Activity
- rising
Checked 15 days ago - source: GitHub (cloudflare/cloudflared)
Resources & Compatibility
Minimum requirements: 4 GB RAM, 4 CPU core(s). ARM (e.g. Raspberry Pi) is supported.
Checked 15 days ago - source: Docker Hub image tags and published docs
First-install notes
- Run cloudflared login first Before starting your tunnel, run cloudflared login (or set up a tunnel token) so it can prove it is allowed to connect to Cloudflare. Without that credential, the tunnel may start but cannot safely connect your local services to your Cloudflare account. source
- Watch config file warnings cloudflared reads its tunnel settings from a config file, so check for any warnings when it starts. Those warnings often point to a missing or incorrect setting that would stop traffic from reaching the right place. source
- Verify connection with tunnel info After it is running, use cloudflared tunnel info to see whether your local connector is actually connected to Cloudflare. This helps you tell the difference between a broken website and a tunnel that is not connected yet. source
Fetched 15 days ago - each note links to its source
Variants
Alternatives (10)
- Amazon Web Services - A pay-as-you-go cloud computing platform with services in networking, compute, storage, and IoT, accessible via global server farms.
- Anubis - Anubis is a lightweight, self-hosted web firewall that weighs each incoming connection with a proof-of-work challenge before it reaches you…
- BunkerWeb - BunkerWeb is a self-hosted, open-source web application firewall and NGINX-based web server that protects services with secure-by-default s…
- Cisco Umbrella - Cisco Umbrella (formerly OpenDNS) provides the first line of defense against threats on the internet wherever users go.
- CrowdSec - CrowdSec is a free, open-source and collaborative IPS.
- DigitalOcean - Cloud computing platform with Droplets for virtual servers, managed Kubernetes, spaces for storage, and managed databases aiming at develop…
- Duck DNS - Free dynamic DNS hosted on Amazon VPC.
- Fly.io - Edge computing is the new frontier.
- Haproxy - HAProxy is a TCP proxy and a HTTP reverse proxy.
- Sucuri
Checked 12 days ago - source: AlternativeTo
Common questions
Do I need to log in before starting a Cloudflare Tunnel?
Yes. Run cloudflared login or set up a tunnel token first so the daemon can prove it is allowed to connect to your Cloudflare account. Without that credential, the tunnel may start but may not connect your local services safely.
What should I do if cloudflared starts but prints config warnings?
Check the warnings because they often point to a missing or incorrect setting. An unnoticed config problem can stop traffic from reaching the intended origin.
How can I tell whether my cloudflared tunnel is actually connected?
Use cloudflared tunnel info after starting it. That shows whether the local connector is connected and helps separate a broken website from an unconnected tunnel.
Why is my app reachable with localhost locally but not through cloudflared in Docker?
If the service is on the Docker host, use the Docker host IP address instead of localhost in the tunnel origin. localhost inside the container points to the container, not the host.
Can cloudflared be used for non-HTTP services such as SSH?
Yes, cloudflared access can reach tunnel-protected origins for Layer 4 TCP traffic, including SSH or RDP. WARP can also access private origins behind tunnels for Layer 4 traffic without running cloudflared access on the client.
Answers sourced from github.com, github.com, github.com, github.com, www.reddit.com
Community
- r/selfhosted on Reddit: Thoughts on using Cloudflare's proxy when ... (reddit)
- Do you use cloudflare tunnel? : r/selfhosted - Reddit (reddit)
- Cloudflare tunnels : r/selfhosted - Reddit (reddit)
Collected 5 days ago - public community threads