cloudflared

Cloudflare Tunnel client (formerly Argo Tunnel)

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Streisand sets up a new server running your choice of WireGuard, OpenConnect, OpenSSH, OpenVPN, Shadowsocks, sslh, Stunnel, or a Tor bridge. It also generates custom instructions for all of these services. At the end of the run you are given an HTML file with instructions that can be shared with friends, family members, and fellow activists.

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Set up a personal VPN in the cloud

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A cloud native Identity & Access Proxy / API (IAP) and Access Control Decision API that authenticates, authorizes, and mutates incoming HTTP(s) requests. Inspired by the BeyondCorp / Zero Trust white paper. Written in Go.

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The easiest, and most secure way to access and protect all of your infrastructure.

pomerium

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Pomerium is an identity and context-aware access proxy.

Quick Overview

Cloudflared is the command-line client for Cloudflare Tunnel, a tunneling daemon that proxies traffic from the public internet to your origins. It enables you to expose web servers, APIs, and other services securely without opening ports on your firewall or configuring complex network settings.

Pros

Secure remote access without exposing services directly to the internet
Easy setup and management of tunnels through Cloudflare's dashboard
Supports various protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, and RDP
Integrates well with Cloudflare's other security and performance features

Cons

Requires a Cloudflare account and domain
May introduce additional latency compared to direct connections
Limited customization options for advanced networking scenarios
Dependency on Cloudflare's infrastructure and potential single point of failure

Getting Started

Install cloudflared:

brew install cloudflare/cloudflare/cloudflared

Authenticate cloudflared:
```
cloudflared tunnel login
```
Create a tunnel:
```
cloudflared tunnel create my-tunnel
```

Configure your tunnel in ~/.cloudflared/config.yml:

tunnel: <TUNNEL_ID>
credentials-file: /path/to/credentials.json

ingress:
  - hostname: example.com
    service: http://localhost:8000
  - service: http_status:404

Run the tunnel:
```
cloudflared tunnel run my-tunnel
```

For more detailed instructions and advanced configurations, refer to the official Cloudflare documentation.

Competitor Comparisons

streisand

23,178

Pros of Streisand

Offers a wider range of VPN and proxy protocols, providing more flexibility for users
Designed for self-hosting, giving users full control over their privacy infrastructure
Automates the setup process for multiple privacy tools, reducing complexity for users

Cons of Streisand

Requires more technical knowledge to set up and maintain compared to Cloudflared
May have higher operational costs due to self-hosting requirements
Less frequent updates and potentially slower security patch implementation

Code Comparison

Streisand (Ansible playbook excerpt):

- name: Install OpenVPN
  apt:
    name: openvpn
    state: present

- name: Configure OpenVPN server
  template:
    src: openvpn-server.conf.j2
    dest: /etc/openvpn/server.conf

Cloudflared (Go code excerpt):

func (t *Tunnel) ServeTunnel(ctx context.Context, connIndex uint8, c net.Conn, config *TunnelConfig) error {
    defer c.Close()
    return t.connectionManager.Serve(ctx, connIndex, c, config)
}

The code snippets highlight the different approaches: Streisand uses Ansible for configuration management, while Cloudflared is written in Go and focuses on tunnel management.

algo

28,868

Set up a personal VPN in the cloud

Pros of Algo

Focuses on creating personal VPN servers, offering more privacy control
Supports multiple cloud providers, giving users flexibility in deployment
Emphasizes security with strong encryption and automatic updates

Cons of Algo

Requires more technical knowledge to set up and maintain
Limited to VPN functionality, lacking broader network management features
May have higher operational costs due to cloud provider fees

Code Comparison

Algo (Ansible playbook snippet):

- name: Install strongSwan
  apt:
    name:
      - strongswan
      - strongswan-plugin-eap-mschapv2
    state: present

Cloudflared (Go code snippet):

func (t *Tunnel) ServeTunnel(ctx context.Context, connIndex uint8, conn net.Conn, config *TunnelConfig) error {
    // Tunnel serving logic
    return nil
}

The code snippets highlight the different approaches: Algo uses Ansible for configuration management, while Cloudflared is written in Go for performance. Algo focuses on VPN setup, whereas Cloudflared manages tunnel connections for various Cloudflare services.

oathkeeper

3,230

Pros of Oathkeeper

More flexible and customizable authentication and authorization rules
Supports a wider range of identity providers and authentication methods
Can be used as a standalone service or integrated into existing infrastructure

Cons of Oathkeeper

Steeper learning curve and more complex setup compared to Cloudflared
Requires more manual configuration and maintenance
May have higher resource requirements for large-scale deployments

Code Comparison

Oathkeeper configuration example:

access_rules:
  - id: "some-rule"
    match:
      url: "http://<protected-service>/<.*>"
      methods:
        - GET
    authenticators:
      - handler: jwt
    authorizer:
      handler: allow
    mutators:
      - handler: id_token

Cloudflared configuration example:

tunnel: example-tunnel
credentials-file: /path/to/credentials.json
ingress:
  - hostname: example.com
    service: http://localhost:8000
  - service: http_status:404

The code examples highlight the difference in complexity and flexibility between the two projects. Oathkeeper offers more granular control over access rules and authentication methods, while Cloudflared provides a simpler configuration focused on tunnel creation and traffic routing.

teleport

17,474

The easiest, and most secure way to access and protect all of your infrastructure.

Pros of Teleport

More comprehensive access management solution, covering SSH, Kubernetes, databases, and web applications
Built-in audit logging and session recording for enhanced security and compliance
Supports role-based access control (RBAC) for fine-grained permissions

Cons of Teleport

More complex setup and configuration compared to Cloudflared
Requires more resources to run and maintain
May have a steeper learning curve for users and administrators

Code Comparison

Teleport configuration example:

teleport:
  nodename: example-node
  data_dir: /var/lib/teleport
  auth_token: secret-token-value
  auth_servers:
    - auth.example.com:3025

Cloudflared configuration example:

tunnel: example-tunnel
credentials-file: /path/to/credentials.json
ingress:
  - hostname: example.com
    service: http://localhost:8000
  - service: http_status:404

Both projects aim to provide secure access to resources, but Teleport offers a more comprehensive solution for various protocols and services, while Cloudflared focuses primarily on tunneling HTTP traffic. Teleport's configuration is more extensive due to its broader feature set, while Cloudflared's configuration is simpler and more focused on tunnel setup.

pomerium

4,001

Pomerium is an identity and context-aware access proxy.

Pros of Pomerium

Open-source and self-hosted, offering greater control and customization
Supports multiple identity providers and protocols (e.g., OIDC, OAuth2, SAML)
Provides more advanced access control features, including policy-based authorization

Cons of Pomerium

Steeper learning curve and more complex setup compared to Cloudflared
Requires more infrastructure management and maintenance
Smaller community and ecosystem compared to Cloudflare's offerings

Code Comparison

Pomerium configuration example:

authenticate:
  idp:
    provider: okta
    clientID: ${IDP_CLIENT_ID}
    clientSecret: ${IDP_CLIENT_SECRET}
    url: https://example.okta.com

Cloudflared configuration example:

tunnel: 6ff42ae2-765d-4adf-8112-31c55c1551ef
credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/6ff42ae2-765d-4adf-8112-31c55c1551ef.json
ingress:
  - hostname: example.com
    service: http://localhost:8000

Both Pomerium and Cloudflared offer secure access to internal resources, but they cater to different use cases. Pomerium is more suitable for organizations requiring fine-grained access control and multi-provider support, while Cloudflared is simpler to set up and integrates seamlessly with Cloudflare's ecosystem.

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README

Cloudflare Tunnel client

Contains the command-line client for Cloudflare Tunnel, a tunneling daemon that proxies traffic from the Cloudflare network to your origins. This daemon sits between Cloudflare network and your origin (e.g. a webserver). Cloudflare attracts client requests and sends them to you via this daemon, without requiring you to poke holes on your firewall --- your origin can remain as closed as possible. Extensive documentation can be found in the Cloudflare Tunnel section of the Cloudflare Docs. All usages related with proxying to your origins are available under cloudflared tunnel help.

You can also use cloudflared to access Tunnel origins (that are protected with cloudflared tunnel) for TCP traffic at Layer 4 (i.e., not HTTP/websocket), which is relevant for use cases such as SSH, RDP, etc. Such usages are available under cloudflared access help.

You can instead use WARP client to access private origins behind Tunnels for Layer 4 traffic without requiring cloudflared access commands on the client side.

Before you get started

Before you use Cloudflare Tunnel, you'll need to complete a few steps in the Cloudflare dashboard: you need to add a website to your Cloudflare account. Note that today it is possible to use Tunnel without a website (e.g. for private routing), but for legacy reasons this requirement is still necessary:

Installing `cloudflared`

Downloads are available as standalone binaries, a Docker image, and Debian, RPM, and Homebrew packages. You can also find releases here on the cloudflared GitHub repository.

You can install on macOS via Homebrew or by downloading the latest Darwin amd64 release
Binaries, Debian, and RPM packages for Linux can be found here
A Docker image of cloudflared is available on DockerHub
You can install on Windows machines with the steps here
To build from source, first you need to download the go toolchain by running ./.teamcity/install-cloudflare-go.sh and follow the output. Then you can run make cloudflared

User documentation for Cloudflare Tunnel can be found at https://developers.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-one/connections/connect-apps

Creating Tunnels and routing traffic

Once installed, you can authenticate cloudflared into your Cloudflare account and begin creating Tunnels to serve traffic to your origins.

Create a Tunnel with these instructions
Route traffic to that Tunnel:
- Via public DNS records in Cloudflare
- Or via a public hostname guided by a Cloudflare Load Balancer
- Or from WARP client private traffic

TryCloudflare

Want to test Cloudflare Tunnel before adding a website to Cloudflare? You can do so with TryCloudflare using the documentation available here.

Deprecated versions

Cloudflare currently supports versions of cloudflared that are within one year of the most recent release. Breaking changes unrelated to feature availability may be introduced that will impact versions released more than one year ago. You can read more about upgrading cloudflared in our developer documentation.

For example, as of January 2023 Cloudflare will support cloudflared version 2023.1.1 to cloudflared 2022.1.1.

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Quick Overview

Pros

Cons

Getting Started

Competitor Comparisons

Pros of Streisand

Cons of Streisand

Code Comparison

Pros of Algo

Cons of Algo

Code Comparison

Pros of Oathkeeper

Cons of Oathkeeper

Code Comparison

Pros of Teleport

Cons of Teleport

Code Comparison

Pros of Pomerium

Cons of Pomerium

Code Comparison

Convert designs to code with AI

README

Cloudflare Tunnel client

Before you get started

Installing cloudflared

Creating Tunnels and routing traffic

TryCloudflare

Deprecated versions

Top Related Projects

Convert designs to code with AI

Installing `cloudflared`