I spent my weekend looking for an open-source alternative to Cloudflare Tunnel and discovered Pangolin.
I needed secure access to my homelab services without exposing ports. Cloudflare Tunnel works, but I wanted more control over my infrastructure. Pangolin provides that tunnel functionality but fully self-hosted. I deployed it on a cheap cloud VPS.
The setup was straightforward. Got it working within a few hours.
What I loved
- Automated SSL certificates (it uses Traefik reverse proxy behind the scenes)
- Built-in authentication with 2FA and OIDC support
- Load balancing capabilities
Hosting Guide
The hosting guide can be found in the Pangolin documentation.
