TunnelNet vs ngrok, playit.gg, Cloudflare Tunnel and Tailscale
All five let people reach something you run at home, even behind CGNAT. They are built for different jobs. Four of them have a free plan, and for many people one of those is the right answer. This page says which one fits which job, with a link to each company's own page for every fact we state about them.
The short answer
- Only your own devices need to reach it: Tailscale. Its Personal plan is free for up to 6 users (tailscale.com/pricing). You do not need a public address at all.
- A website or web app, and you are happy for it to sit behind Cloudflare: Cloudflare Tunnel. It connects your server to Cloudflare “without a publicly routable IP address” (Cloudflare docs).
- Showing a developer build to someone for an afternoon: ngrok. It has a free plan with an assigned development domain (ngrok.com/pricing).
- A few friends on your game server this weekend: playit.gg. It is built for game servers, has a free tier, and handles TCP and UDP (playit.gg/pricing).
- You need a public IPv4 address of your own, on any port, that does not change: that is what TunnelNet sells. $10 a month for TunnelNet IP.
What each one gives you
| Who connects | What address people use | Ports and traffic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tailscale (Funnel) | Your own devices; Funnel opens a service to the public | A name Tailscale gives you | Funnel listens only on ports 443, 8443 and 10000, and only over TLS-encrypted connections (Tailscale docs) |
| Cloudflare Tunnel | Anyone, through Cloudflare | Your domain, answered by Cloudflare | Websites directly. For non-web apps such as SSH, visitors use Cloudflare’s client or cloudflared on their own device, or a terminal Cloudflare shows in the browser (Cloudflare docs) |
| ngrok | Anyone | An ngrok domain or address | Web traffic; on the free plan, TCP needs a verified credit card, which ngrok says it does not charge (ngrok.com/pricing) |
| playit.gg | Anyone (players) | An address and port playit.gg gives you | TCP and UDP, aimed at games (playit.gg/pricing) |
| TunnelNet IP | Anyone | A public IPv4 address of your own, from our block 23.187.152.0/24 (AS396500) | Any TCP or UDP port you open. SSH is open by default; everything else stays closed until you open it |
We do not quote the other companies’ paid prices here: they change, and their own pages are the place to check them.
When a public address of your own matters
- Players or customers type an address and a port. Game servers, a camera recorder, remote desktop, a mail server that only receives. Anything that is not a website served through someone else’s front door.
- Someone else has to allow-list you. A vendor asks “which IP will you connect from?” A shared tunnel address cannot answer that. With TunnelNet Full, your computer’s outgoing traffic leaves from your own address too.
- You want it to stay the same. Your TunnelNet address stays the same even when your internet provider changes the one it gives you.
What TunnelNet does not do
- No protection from flood attacks (DDoS). If that is your main worry, Cloudflare, playit.gg or a game host is the better choice.
- Android is not supported yet. TunnelNet IP runs on Linux, Windows and a Mac with Apple Silicon. TunnelNet Full ($20 a month) sends your outgoing traffic from your address on Linux and iPhone today; on Windows and Mac you still get the address for people to reach you.
- Our hubs are in Chicago and Newark, in the US. If you and the people connecting are far from there, that distance adds to the ping.
- Outgoing port 25 is blocked, so you cannot send mail from the address.
- It is not for hiding who you are. An address used by one person points to that person. We are private, not invisible.
- Docs and support are in English. Support replies within one business day; it is not 24/7.
Which one?
Try the free option that matches your job first. If you end up needing an address of your own that anyone can reach on any port, here are the plans and prices.
The plans for this
A public IPv4 address of your own on a computer you run: Linux, Windows, or a Mac with Apple Silicon. People can reach it at that address. Everything except SSH stays closed until you open a port.
Buy TunnelNet IP →The same address, and your computer’s outgoing traffic leaves from it too. Today that works on Linux and iPhone; on Windows and Mac you get the address, but your traffic goes out through your own connection.
Buy TunnelNet Full →If a free option above fits, use it. Our hubs are in Chicago and Newark, there is no protection from flood attacks (DDoS), and port 25 is blocked. All plans and prices.