# https://tunnels.io/compare/serveo

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tunnels.io vs Serveo

# The Serveo alternative with no warning page and published limits.

Serveo is a genuinely clever product. Their pitch is "Expose local servers to the internet. Choose your path. No proprietary clients. No downloads." and the SSH approach behind it is elegant. Two things stop it short: their free plan puts an interstitial warning in front of your app, and their pricing page publishes no bandwidth figure and no request-rate figure at all. Our free plan has no interstitial, our paid plan is $4 against their $6, and we print every number.

[Start free →](https://tunnels.io/signup) [See pricing](https://tunnels.io/pricing)

## The short answer

Both give your local server a public URL. Serveo does it over SSH, a browser extension marked BETA, or WireGuard, so there is nothing to install. tunnels.io ships one small binary and, in exchange, tells you exactly what you get: the request rate, the monthly transfer, the tunnel count, on every plan. If you are picking between them, the deciding questions are usually whether your visitors see a warning screen first, and whether you want to know your limits before you hit them.

Paid entry price

$4 vs $6

tunnels.io Pro is $4 a month or $40 a year. Serveo Pro is $6 a month or $60 a year.

Included bandwidth

128 GB vs not published

On the paid entry tier. Serveo's pricing page publishes no bandwidth figure and no request-rate figure.

Free plan visitors see

Your app

Serveo's free plan lists an interstitial warning. Ours does not have one at any tier.

## A free tunnel with a warning page is not a free tunnel.

Serveo lists "Interstitial warning" on its free plan, and "No interstitial warnings" as a Pro feature. That means the person you sent the link to, or the webhook provider you are testing against, meets a warning screen before they reach your app. In a demo it costs you the first ten seconds of the call. For an automated caller it is worse, because a webhook is not a browser and will not click through to continue.

tunnels.io has no interstitial on any plan, including the free one. Traffic reaches your server on the first request. That is the whole product, and we do not hold it back as an upsell.

## Side by side

Serveo figures taken from serveo.net, verified 1 August 2026. Where a cell says "not published", that is because Serveo states no figure on its pricing page, not because the limit is unlimited. tunnels.io figures from our live plan catalog; [/pricing](https://tunnels.io/pricing) is always authoritative.

| | Serveo Free | tunnels.io Basic | Serveo Pro | tunnels.io Pro |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $0 | $0 | $6/mo, $60/year, or $6 for a 10-day pass | $4/mo, or $40/year |
| Data transfer out | Not published | 4 GB per month | Not published | 128 GB per month, included |
| Request limits | Not published | 1,024 requests/second, no monthly cap | Not published | 8,192 requests/second, no monthly cap |
| Concurrent tunnels | 3 active tunnels | 1 | Unlimited active tunnels | 5 |
| Interstitial page | Yes, an interstitial warning | No | No | No |
| Custom subdomain | Included | Random URL | Included | Yes, up to 3 reserved |
| How you connect | SSH, a BETA Chrome extension, or WireGuard | One binary, one command | SSH, a BETA Chrome extension, or WireGuard | One binary, one command |
| Room above the entry tier | Free and Pro | Basic, Pro, Gold, Premium | Advanced key management, priority developer support | Gold $10 adds custom domains; Premium $20 unlimited rate |

## Why people move

### Nobody sees a warning first

Serveo's free plan carries an interstitial warning and removes it on Pro. Ours has no interstitial on any plan, so a free tunnel behaves exactly like a paid one from the first request. Send the link to a client, point a webhook at it, screen share it in a standup. It just serves your app.

### Published limits are a feature

Serveo publishes no bandwidth figure and no request-rate figure on its pricing page. We publish both, per plan: 4 GB a month and 1,024 requests a second on the free tier, 128 GB and 8,192 on Pro. You can size a demo, a load test or a launch before you run it instead of finding the ceiling in production.

### Cheaper now, and room later

Pro is $4 a month or $40 a year against Serveo's $6 a month or $60 a year, and it adds TCP tunnels and up to three reserved subdomains. When the side project turns into a product, Gold at $10 brings your own custom domains and Premium at $20 lifts the request rate entirely. See [/pricing](https://tunnels.io/pricing) for the live numbers.

## Where Serveo is genuinely stronger

Serveo needs no install, and that is a real advantage we cannot match. ssh -R 80:localhost:3000 serveo.net works on a machine you have never touched before, because SSH is already there. On a locked down laptop, a shared box, or a client's environment where you cannot add binaries, that is the difference between having a tunnel and not having one. They also give you custom subdomains on the free plan, where our free plan issues a random URL, and their $6 ten-day pass is a genuinely thoughtful option if you only need a tunnel for one short project.

If zero install is your hard requirement, use Serveo with our blessing. If you want a tunnel with no warning page in front of it and limits you can read before you commit, keep going.

## Questions

### Is tunnels.io cheaper than Serveo?

Yes at the paid entry tier. tunnels.io Pro is $4 a month or $40 a year, and Serveo Pro is $6 a month or $60 a year. Both have a free plan. Serveo also sells a $6 one-time ten-day pass, which is cheaper than a month of anything if you genuinely only need a tunnel for a week.

### Does Serveo show an interstitial warning page?

Serveo lists an interstitial warning on its free plan and lists no interstitial warnings as a Pro feature. tunnels.io serves your application directly on every plan, including the free one. If your visitors or your webhook callers must not meet a warning screen, that is the difference on the free tier.

### How much bandwidth does Serveo include?

Serveo publishes no bandwidth figure and no request-rate figure on its pricing page, so we cannot tell you. tunnels.io publishes both on every plan: 4 GB a month and 1,024 requests a second on the free plan, 128 GB and 8,192 requests a second on Pro. Our [pricing page](https://tunnels.io/pricing) is the authoritative list.

### Do I have to install anything to use tunnels.io?

Yes, one small binary, then one command. We build for macOS, Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and NetBSD. Serveo wins here honestly: it works over SSH, a BETA Chrome extension or WireGuard, so on a machine where you cannot install software it is the better tool.

### How many tunnels can I run at the same time?

tunnels.io gives 1 on the free plan, 5 on Pro, 10 on Gold and unlimited on Premium. Serveo gives 3 active tunnels free and unlimited on Pro, so if raw tunnel count on the free tier is what you need, they give you more. If you need many tunnels plus published limits and no warning page, Premium at $20 a month is the direct answer.

### Can I keep the same URL between restarts?

On any paid tunnels.io plan, yes. Pro includes up to three reserved subdomains and Gold adds your own custom domains. Our free plan issues a random URL each time, whereas Serveo includes custom subdomains on its free plan, which is a fair point in their favour.

## Try it on the free plan first.

No credit card. Four gigabytes a month, 1,024 requests a second, no interstitial, and a public HTTPS URL in about thirty seconds.

[Get started →](https://tunnels.io/get-started) [Create an account](https://tunnels.io/signup) [See all comparisons](https://tunnels.io/compare)

Also compare against [ngrok](https://tunnels.io/compare/ngrok), [Cloudflare Tunnel](https://tunnels.io/compare/cloudflare-tunnel), [Tailscale](https://tunnels.io/compare/tailscale) and [localtunnel](https://tunnels.io/compare/localtunnel). Prices and limits on [/pricing](https://tunnels.io/pricing).