# Stunnel

13 Hacker News commenters recommended Stunnel and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend it as a simple way to add TLS encryption to legacy apps and systems that lack native support, and to set up mutual TLS for them.

## Why people recommend it

- Adds TLS to legacy software (3 comments): "A practical solution, both for legacy components and for the cases when you don't want to deal with implementing TLS natively." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46730292)) "relatively simple method for implementing mutual TLS (mTLS) for legacy apps or systems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46728235)) "I've found stunnel a godsend for bridging the gap." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46728617))
- Good enough for most cases (2 comments): "This thing is gold for "80% solutions" in that respect." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46730812)) "stunnel is a perfectly fine option" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46727686))
- Easier than SSH for mail (2 comments): "Allows me to speak SSL and receive mail. I like that." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46730612)) "easier to use in this context than ssh" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46728747))

## What people warn about

- Crashes under high handshake rate (1 comments): "stunnel crashes at under 100 handshakes per second" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46269008))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Stunnel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/stunnel/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).