tunnels.io vs Cloudflare Tunnel
A stable URL without moving your nameservers.
Cloudflare Tunnel has two paths. The quick one is genuinely fast, but Cloudflare's own documentation says it is "intended for testing and development only" and it hands you a new random subdomain every run. The path that gives you a stable hostname asks you to add a domain you own to Cloudflare and point its nameservers there. tunnels.io gives you a reserved subdomain on a $4 plan with no DNS changes at all.
The short answer
Cloudflare Tunnel is mainly an origin connectivity product. It replaces your public origin IP so that traffic flows through Cloudflare's proxy, which is where the CDN caching, WAF, Bot Management and DDoS protection live. Sharing a port on your laptop is a sub-feature of that, and it shows in the setup. tunnels.io does one job: it takes a local port and puts it on the internet at a URL you can keep.
DNS changes to get started
None
A Cloudflare named tunnel needs a domain you own added to Cloudflare and its nameservers pointed at Cloudflare. We need neither.
Reserved subdomain from
$4 a month
Pro includes up to three reserved subdomains and 128 GB of monthly transfer. No domain purchase, no nameserver move.
Quick tunnel URL
Random
TryCloudflare generates a random trycloudflare.com subdomain and prints it in your terminal. There is no reserved, stable or custom subdomain option.
Cloudflare tells you not to ship the easy path.
This is Cloudflare's documentation on TryCloudflare, quoted in full: "We don't guarantee any SLA or uptime of TryCloudflare. Free tunnels are meant to be used for testing and development, not for deploying a production website." The get-started guide repeats it: "Quick Tunnels are intended for testing and development only. For production use, create a remotely-managed tunnel."
That is honest of them, and it is also the whole decision. The two minute version is explicitly not for anything that matters, and the version that is for production starts with adding a website to Cloudflare and changing your domain nameservers. There is a third option worth mentioning: quick tunnels are not supported if a config.yaml configuration file is present, so a machine already configured for a named tunnel cannot casually fall back to the fast path.
tunnels.io has one path. You install one binary, run one command, and every plan uses the same service. Reserved subdomains start at $4 a month, and there is no interstitial or warning page on any plan, including the free one.
Side by side
Cloudflare Tunnel details taken from developers.cloudflare.com and cloudflare.com, verified 1 August 2026. tunnels.io figures from our live plan catalog; /pricing is always authoritative.
| TryCloudflare quick tunnel | tunnels.io Basic | Cloudflare named tunnel | tunnels.io Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | See cloudflare.com | $0 | See cloudflare.com | $4/mo, or $40/year |
| Account required | No, and no credit card | Yes, no credit card | Yes, a Cloudflare account | Yes |
| Domain you own required | No | No | Yes, added to Cloudflare | No |
| Nameserver change required | No | No | Yes, pointed at Cloudflare, plus DNS write access | No |
| Stable hostname | No, a random trycloudflare.com subdomain each run | Random URL | Yes, on your own domain | Yes, up to 3 reserved subdomains |
| Setup | One command, URL printed in the terminal | One binary, one command | A 7 step guide, with prerequisites "Add a website to Cloudflare" and "Change your domain nameservers" | One binary, one command |
| Vendor guidance on production use | "Intended for testing and development only" | No such restriction | The recommended path for production | No such restriction |
| Interstitial or warning page | Not applicable | None | Not applicable | None |
Why people move
Your DNS stays where it is
Pointing your nameservers at Cloudflare moves your whole zone, including mail records and anything else that resolves under it. That is a real decision with real blast radius, and it is a lot to sign up for when all you wanted was to share port 3000. We ask for nothing in your DNS.
The URL survives a restart
A random subdomain per run means re-pasting the link into Slack, re-registering the webhook, and re-configuring the OAuth callback every single time. A reserved subdomain on Pro stays yours, so the URL you gave a client on Monday still works on Thursday. Gold adds your own custom domains at $10 a month.
Limits you can read in one line
Free is 1,024 requests per second, 4 GB a month and one tunnel. Pro is 8,192 requests per second, 128 GB and five tunnels. Gold is 16,384 and 256 GB, Premium lifts the request rate entirely with 512 GB and unlimited tunnels. Rates are sustained request rates, not monthly quotas, and /pricing is the live source.
Where Cloudflare Tunnel is genuinely stronger
Cloudflare operates at an enormous scale and gives a lot of it away. Traffic through a Cloudflare Tunnel sits behind their CDN caching, WAF, Bot Management and DDoS protection, which is an entire security stack we do not offer. The cloudflared connection is outbound only and post-quantum encrypted, and the product is mature and battle tested in front of a very large share of the web. If Cloudflare is already your DNS provider and you want a permanent production origin without exposing a public IP, that is exactly what Cloudflare Tunnel was built for and you should use it.
If what you actually need is a public HTTPS URL for the thing running on your laptop right now, and you would rather not move a domain to get one, keep reading.
Questions
Can I use Cloudflare Tunnel without a domain?
Yes, through a TryCloudflare quick tunnel, which needs no account, no credit card and no domain. It generates a random subdomain on trycloudflare.com and prints it in your terminal, and there is no reserved, stable or custom subdomain option. Cloudflare's documentation says quick tunnels are intended for testing and development only.
Do I have to move my nameservers to use Cloudflare Tunnel?
For a named tunnel with a stable hostname, yes. The get-started guide lists a Cloudflare account, a domain you own added to Cloudflare, your domain's nameservers pointed at Cloudflare and DNS write access as prerequisites, then runs to seven numbered steps. tunnels.io requires no DNS changes on any plan.
Can I keep the same URL between restarts on tunnels.io?
Yes on any paid plan. Pro is $4 a month, or $40 a year, and includes up to three reserved subdomains. Gold at $10 a month adds your own custom domains. Our free plan issues a random URL each time, which is fine for a quick share but not for a registered webhook.
Is there an interstitial or warning page on tunnels.io?
No, on any plan, including the free one. Traffic reaches your application directly, so a webhook caller or an API client gets your response rather than a click-through screen. That holds at $0 as well as at $20.
Is there a monthly request limit on tunnels.io?
No. We limit the sustained request rate rather than a monthly total: 1,024 requests per second on Basic, 8,192 on Pro, 16,384 on Gold and an unlimited request rate on Premium. Monthly data transfer is what varies by plan, from 4 GB on the free tier to 512 GB on Premium.
When is Cloudflare Tunnel the better choice?
When you want a permanent production origin behind Cloudflare's CDN, WAF, Bot Management and DDoS protection, and Cloudflare is already your DNS provider. In that case the nameserver requirement is not a cost, because you have already paid it. We are the better fit when the job is sharing a local port at a URL you can keep, without touching DNS.
Try it on the free plan first.
No credit card, no domain, no DNS changes. Four gigabytes a month, no interstitial, and a public HTTPS URL in about thirty seconds.
Also compare against ngrok, Tailscale, localtunnel and Serveo, or see pricing.