# Cloudflare Quick Tunnels Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-quick-tunnels/ 18 people recommended Cloudflare Quick Tunnels in Hacker News comments, 10 had mixed feelings and 25 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 1 of 12 months, in 2 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. 17 of the 18 people who recommend it commented in one thread, “Cloudflare Quick Tunnels”. **Verdict:** More people criticize it than recommend it. Free, account-less way to share a local web service over HTTPS with one command; caveat: critics say it is not for long-lived production. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Exposed URLs can be found by bots (4 comments in the sample): "CF leaks DNS-records. So bots will find these urls instantly." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756732)) "how long until someone's agent sets up a tunnel for the world to see one's most sensitive, private and embarrassing information" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756881)) "anonymous, account-less tunneling services like this are net negative for the security of the internet" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49759719)) - Not for long-lived production (2 comments in the sample): "I’d still be hesitant to make them part of a long-lived production setup." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756478)) "They literally market them for quick demos. And not long lived production." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756613)) - Terms of service restrict use (2 comments in the sample): "you shouldn't subject a clients product to terms they probably aren't aware of" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756265)) "I dont like the terms of use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49755264)) - Cloudflare surveillance and data concerns (2 comments in the sample): "the vast Internet surveillance system run by the Americans called Cloudflare" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49759012)) "The marketing from Cloudflare around this being for agents feels like the intended use case is for agents to exfiltrate data off your laptop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49760740)) ## Why people recommend it - Easy one-command tunnel setup (3 comments in the sample): "it's very easy to just run a quick tunnel with "cloudflared tunnel --url localhost:XXXX" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49757272)) "your tunnel URL prints in the console and you can download dirs as tarball" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49760238)) "perhaps this is the most easy to use networking product that ever shipped" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49762390)) - Handy for quick sharing and demos (3 comments in the sample): "it's a nice way to quickly test a new service or change over the internet without going through the git process" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756283)) "Insanely helpful when doing agentic work on the go" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49762338)) "its good for quick UI sharing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49763480)) - No account or login needed (2 comments in the sample): "No log in needed, pretty convenient." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49757316)) "it says no account creation, neat!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49755662)) - Reaches local services without port forwarding (2 comments in the sample): "The obvious difference (and thus massive advantage) of the cloudfare product is that it is accessible over the normal internet without needing to install a…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756083)) "This requires no port forwarding, so someone brute force scanning your IP won't find this and your open port." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49756410)) ## Other tunneling services people recommend - [ngrok](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ngrok/): 13 recommend, 4 mixed, 11 criticize - [Tunnl.gg](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tunnl-gg/): 7 recommend, 5 mixed, 4 criticize - [Pinggy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pinggy/): 5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize - [sish](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sish/): 5 recommend, 1 mixed, 0 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.cloudflare.com/) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Cloudflare Quick Tunnels", https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-quick-tunnels/ (18 recommend, 10 mixed, 25 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.