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Chisel vs Cloudflare Tunnel: catalog facts
Chisel	Cloudflare Tunnel
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Freemium cloudflared is free and open source, and Cloudflare Tunnel is available on Cloudflare's…
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Single static binary acts as both ends of the tunnel Works through HTTP proxies and restrictive egress filtering	No inbound ports opened; the daemon connects outbound to Cloudflare Works behind carrier-grade NAT where port forwarding is impossible
Tunnelling out of a network can breach policy; get permission first No traffic shaping or access control beyond the SSH layer	Requires a Cloudflare account and a domain on Cloudflare Your traffic passes through Cloudflare, which is a dependency and a trust decision
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	Account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.