Tailscale Serve
Ranked 7 of 7 reverse proxies by recommenders
Lets you host a web service directly on your Tailscale network, with valid certificates, as an alternative to Cloudflare tunnels.
Lets you host a web service directly on your Tailscale network, with valid certificates, as an alternative to Cloudflare tunnels.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Hosts web services directly on Tailscale
“It's an underrated, and unfortunately under documented, way to host a web service directly to Tailscale.”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Self-hosting my photos with Immich” Issues valid certificates automatically
“Until I had tailscale serve generating valid certs, I had a good reason to use Cloudflare tunnels.”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Cloudflare Quick Tunnels” Alternative to Cloudflare tunnels
“Until I had tailscale serve generating valid certs, I had a good reason to use Cloudflare tunnels.”
Comment from 18 Sep 2026 in “Cloudflare Quick Tunnels” Puts apps on subdomains
“Or just use Tailscale serve to put the app on a subdomain”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “My Homelab Setup”
Other reverse proxies people recommend
The four most recommended other reverse proxies, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pangolin | 37 | 6 | 86% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Traefik | 27 | 8 | 77% | 10 | — | Approved |
| HAProxy | 24 | 2 | 92% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Envoy Proxy | 14 | 7 | 67% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Tailscale ServeThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
4 of the 5 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Until I had tailscale serve generating valid certs, I had a good reason to use Cloudflare tunnels.”
“Or just use Tailscale serve to put the app on a subdomain”
“Give Tailscale serve a shot”
“It's an underrated, and unfortunately under documented, way to host a web service directly to Tailscale.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.