Cloudflare Tunnel connects a service to Cloudflare's network, so it can be reached on your Cloudflare domain with Cloudflare's protection in front. Paperboat gives you tunnels and previews without moving your DNS, plus terminals, SSH, files and secrets on the same machines.
Checked against Cloudflare Tunnel's own documentation and pricing, November 2026. Sources are listed under the table.
A named Cloudflare Tunnel serves a hostname on a domain whose DNS is on Cloudflare, so using your own domain means moving it there.
Paperboat asks for two CNAME records at whichever DNS provider you already use and issues the certificate itself.
$ cloudflared tunnel route dns api api.example.com$ pb tunnel route add api --name web --to http://127.0.0.1:3000 --wait
$ pb tunnel domain add api api.example.com --route webQuick tunnels give a random trycloudflare.com address with no account, meant for testing.
pb preview gives a named link under Paperboat's preview domain that you can make public, private to you, or open to your team, with a time limit you choose.
$ cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000$ pb preview 3000 --ttl 2hCloudflare Tunnel connects services; reaching a shell takes Cloudflare Access and cloudflared on the client.
Paperboat terminals run on the machine and keep running when your laptop sleeps or the network drops. When you come back, from the same computer, another one or a browser, you see what happened while you were away, and you can let someone watch or type along.
Traffic through a Cloudflare Tunnel flows through Cloudflare's network, where its CDN, firewall and DDoS protection apply. For a public site that needs that, it is a real advantage.
Paperboat's edge ends TLS for public links and forwards to your machine; it doesn't cache or filter your traffic.
Every answer in the Cloudflare Tunnel column carries a number that links to the page of theirs that says it. Put a second tool beside it
A shell on your machine that you can leave and come back to.
Run one command on another machine and get its output and exit code.
Use ssh and the tools built on it, without managing keys or opening ports.
Send a file to a machine without setting anything up.
The secrets your programs need, delivered to the machine that runs them.
The same settings on every machine, from a repository you control.
A public link to a port on your machine, for as long as you need it.
A public address for a service that stays the same.
Your machines reach each other's ports without exposing them.
Who could read your traffic on the way.
Working with other people, and deciding who may do what.
Which parts you can run on your own servers.
Where it runs.
How you pay, and what is free.
What each product does, from its own documentation, as of November 2026. “No” means its documentation describes no such feature. Found something out of date? The other product's page wins; tell us and we fix ours.
developers.cloudflare.com/tunnel/, November 2026
No. You add two CNAME records wherever your DNS is hosted; Paperboat checks them and issues the certificate.
Paperboat's edge isn't a CDN or a web firewall. For a public site that needs that, put a CDN in front of the tunnel's domain or keep Cloudflare.
Install Paperboat here, then on a second machine. Free for personal use, no card needed.
$ curl -fsSL https://get.pprbt.dev/install | bash > irm https://get.pprbt.dev/install.ps1 | iex