Concepts
Choose how to share
Quick Share, a share on your domain, a route, a Snapshot, a local domain or a private network: what each one is, when to use it, what it needs and what it costs, side by side.
Teitunnel has several ways to make something on your computer reachable. They differ in how long the address lasts, who can open it, whether your computer has to be on, and what they need from Cloudflare. This page helps you pick one; each links to its full guide.
The short answer
- Someone should look at it now, and the link can die afterwards: Quick Share.
- The same address every time, for a session (webhooks, a demo you give often): a share on your domain.
- It should stay up, on this computer or a server: a route.
- It's a set of files and must stay online while your computer is off: a Snapshot.
- Only you, on this computer, but over real HTTPS: a local domain.
- Only your team, and it isn't a website (a NAS, a database, a whole home network): a private network, or an SSH or TCP route.
Side by side
| Quick Share | Share on your domain | Route | Snapshot | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address | quiet-river-lamp-orbit.trycloudflare.com, new each time | demo.yourhost.com, yours | app.yourhost.com, yours | preview.yourhost.com or a workers.dev address |
| Lasts | Until you stop it, its time is up, or Teitunnel quits | The same | Until you remove it | Until you delete it, or its Delete after date |
| Your computer must be on | Yes | Yes | Yes, or run it on a server | No |
| What it serves | A live service or a folder | A live service or a folder | A live service: HTTP, SSH, RDP, SMB, TCP | Static files |
| Cloudflare account | Not needed | Needed, with a domain | Needed, with a domain | Needed |
| Login in front | Password page or secret link, on this computer | Cloudflare Access | Cloudflare Access | Password or Cloudflare Access |
| Keeps running after you quit | No | No | With Keep running when Teitunnel quits | Always |
| Cost | Free | Free | Free | Free on the Workers free plan |
| In a terminal | teitunnel share 3000 | teitunnel share 3000 --on demo.yourhost.com | teitunnel route add app.yourhost.com 3000 | teitunnel snapshot publish ./dist |
Every one of them goes through a reviewed plan when it changes your Cloudflare account, and none leaves a DNS record behind when it ends (how changes work).
Quick Share
A random trycloudflare.com address through one of Cloudflare's free Quick Tunnels.
- Choose it when you need a link in seconds, you have no Cloudflare account yet, or the address doesn't matter: showing a colleague a branch, opening your site on a phone, a one-off webhook test.
- Not when the address has to stay the same (you'd reconfigure every webhook), the service uses server-sent events (Quick Tunnels don't carry them), or more than a couple hundred requests arrive at once.
Share a local service · limits
Share on your domain
A temporary route at a name you choose, removed with its DNS record when the share ends.
Names can come from your project and branch ({branch}.dev.yourhost.com).
- Choose it when you'd use a Quick Share, but the address should be the same next time: webhook endpoints you register once, a demo link you send before each meeting, a preview per branch. It can require a login and run on a schedule.
- Not when it should keep running without you: make it a route.
Route
A hostname on your domain, permanently routed to a service on this computer's tunnel. It
stays until you remove it and can keep running as a background service after you quit the
app, or on a server with the teitunnel command.
- Choose it when people rely on it: a self-hosted app, Home Assistant, a staging site, SSH or Remote Desktop to a machine, an API a mobile app calls.
- Add to it a login, edge protection (bots, rate limits, headers, cache), an offline page for when the computer is off, a webhook inbox that keeps webhooks until it's back, or load balancing across machines.
Put a service on your domain · routes and tunnels · run modes
Snapshot
A static copy of a folder, a build or a running site, hosted as a Worker on your Cloudflare account. It keeps working with your computer off, and you can update it, roll back to an earlier version, protect it and let reviewers comment on it.
- Choose it when what you show is files (a built site, a prototype, docs, a landing page) and it has to stay up without you: a client review over several days, a pull request preview.
- Not when people need the live app: its API, its database, logging in to it.
Local domain
An HTTPS address such as https://shop.test for a service on this computer, with a trusted
certificate. It never touches Cloudflare and isn't reachable from the internet; .local
names can be opened by phones on the same Wi-Fi.
- Choose it when you develop something that needs HTTPS or a proper hostname: secure cookies, OAuth redirects, service workers, several services on subdomains.
- Not when anyone outside your network should open it.
Private network or private hostname
People signed in to your Cloudflare Zero Trust organization with the WARP client reach
addresses on this computer's network (192.168.1.0/24) or a private name (wiki.internal),
as if they were there. Nothing gets a public address.
- Choose it when your team needs many things on a network, or things that aren't web pages, and you don't want any of them public: a NAS, printers, a database, internal tools.
- Not when the people who need it can't install WARP: use a route with a login instead.
Private networks and SSH · SSH to a home machine
Where it runs
Any of the live options (Quick Share, share on your domain, route) is served by a connector on the machine where the service runs:
| Where | Use |
|---|---|
| The app on your computer | Everything, while the app is open (window closed is fine). |
| The app, with Keep running when Teitunnel quits | Routes that should outlive the app, and start at login. |
teitunnel up or teitunnel serve on a server, in Docker or in CI | Routes that stay up when your laptop is closed. |
See run modes and servers and containers.
Related
Last updated on
What is Cloudflare Tunnel?
How Cloudflare Tunnel and cloudflared publish services without opening ports, what a tunnel, connector, route, DNS record and Quick Tunnel are, what it costs, and the limits worth knowing before you rely on it.
Routes and tunnels
How Teitunnel maps hostnames on your domain to services on your computer: the machine tunnel and its connector, what a route is made of in Cloudflare, path rules and their order, route status, and what happens when routes are changed outside Teitunnel.