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Honest comparison · Updated for 2026

Looking for a Remote Access Alternative?

Nabu Casa, Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale, DuckDNS — they all solve remote access differently, and each is genuinely good at something. Here is where Pluggie fits, written plainly so you can pick the right one even if it is not us.

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Free forever tier · No email or credit card required

The short version

Where Pluggie actually differs

Not cheaper for the sake of it — different in four specific ways that matter if you self-host.

Your own domain

Run your service on your domain, pointed with a simple CNAME — no DNS transfer, no vendor subdomain you cannot change. Included on paid plans from £5/month.

Geo and IP filtering built in

Limit access by country or IP range from the dashboard, with HTTP Basic Auth on top. No WAF rules to write, no separate product to configure.

Not just Home Assistant

Install as a Home Assistant app or as a plain Docker container on any Linux box, then tunnel whatever sits behind it — NAS, cameras, Grafana, Nextcloud.

A free tier with no email

Create an account without handing over an email address or a card, get a pluggie.net subdomain and 1 GB per 30 days, and decide afterwards whether it earns your money.

Side by side

How the options compare

Same data we publish on our homepage. Where a competitor is stronger, we say so.

  Pluggie Nabu Casa Cloudflare Tunnel Tailscale Homeway
Price Free / £5 mo $6.50 /mo Free Free / $5 mo Free / $3.49 mo
Free tier ✓ Data-limited 31-day trial only ✓ ✓ (3 users) ✓ Data-limited
No email signup ✓ (free tier) * × × × (SSO required) ×
End-to-end encryption ✓ ** ✓ ** × (TLS at edge) ✓ (WireGuard) × (not supported)
Encryption integrity check ✓ Active status in UI Manual fingerprint only × (no E2E) ✓ (built into VPN) × (no E2E)
Built-in geo/IP filtering ✓ × Via WAF rules × (ACL only) ×
Custom domain ✓ (paid plans) ✓ (via CNAME) ✓ (requires CF DNS) × (MagicDNS only) ×
Free subdomain ✓ pluggie.net ✓ nabu.casa × (temporary only) ✓ tailnet domain Private link only
Docker & Home Assistant ✓ Both Home Assistant only ✓ ✓ Home Assistant only

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* Pluggie's free tier requires no email or credit card. Paid plans use Stripe for payment processing, which requires an email at checkout.
** Both Pluggie and Nabu Casa generate SSL certificates on your local device and relay encrypted traffic through a proxy server that never decrypts your data. With any relay-based service, the provider theoretically controls the domain and could issue alternative certificates — Nabu Casa has openly acknowledged this, which we respect. Pluggie actively displays encryption integrity status in its web dashboard, Home Assistant app sidebar, and Docker local UI. Nabu Casa provides a manual certificate fingerprint comparison method. Homeway's security documentation describes a relay architecture where requests are tunneled through their servers to your device — E2E encryption is not part of their model. Cloudflare Tunnel terminates TLS at their edge servers. Tailscale uses WireGuard E2E but requires a VPN client on every accessing device.

Straight talk

When you should pick something else

Choose Nabu Casa if…

You run Home Assistant and want your subscription to fund its development directly. That is a real and legitimate reason, and the integration is first-party. Pluggie is a different trust model only in the details, not in kind.

Choose Cloudflare Tunnel if…

Budget is the binding constraint and you are comfortable with your DNS living at Cloudflare and TLS terminating at their edge. It is free and it works well at scale.

Choose Tailscale if…

You want a private mesh network between your own devices rather than a public HTTPS URL, and you do not mind installing a client on everything that needs access. For device-to-device access it is excellent.

Choose Pluggie if…

You want a plain HTTPS URL that works in any browser, on your own domain, with geographic and IP filtering included — and you are behind CGNAT or simply do not want to open ports. Also if you want to try it without handing over an email address first.

Questions

Common questions when switching

Both use a similar trust model: certificates are generated on your device and the relay forwards encrypted traffic without decrypting it. The practical differences are that Pluggie supports custom domains, includes geographic and IP range filtering, shows live encryption integrity status, runs on plain Docker as well as Home Assistant, and offers a free tier that needs no email address. Nabu Casa directly funds Home Assistant development, which is a legitimate reason to choose it.
SSL certificates are generated and stored on your own device, and our relay servers forward encrypted traffic without decrypting or storing it. Pluggie continuously verifies the integrity of that encrypted connection and shows the status in the web dashboard, the Home Assistant app sidebar and the Docker local UI. To be straight with you: with any relay-based service the provider theoretically controls the domain and could issue alternative certificates. That is exactly why the integrity indicator exists — so you can see if anything ever looks wrong. Nabu Casa uses the same architecture and offers a manual fingerprint comparison instead. Cloudflare Tunnel terminates TLS at their edge, so traffic is decrypted there. Tailscale uses WireGuard end-to-end but requires a client on every accessing device. Homeway does not offer end-to-end encryption.
It is free and genuinely capable, so if budget is the deciding factor it is a reasonable choice. The trade-offs are that TLS terminates at Cloudflare's edge servers, so your traffic is decrypted there; using a custom domain requires moving your DNS to Cloudflare; and access filtering is configured through WAF rules rather than in the product. Pluggie keeps certificates on your device and includes geographic and IP filtering directly.
Tailscale is a WireGuard mesh VPN and is excellent at that job. The difference is architectural: every device that needs access must run the Tailscale client and sign in through SSO. Pluggie exposes a normal HTTPS URL, so you can open your service in any browser — including on a device you do not control — without installing anything.
DuckDNS only maps a name to your changing IP address. You still forward ports, which exposes your network to inbound scans, you still manage certificates yourself, and none of it works if your ISP puts you behind CGNAT. Pluggie needs no inbound ports, works behind CGNAT, and issues and renews certificates automatically.
Yes, on paid plans. Point your domain at Pluggie with a CNAME — no DNS transfer required, so your registrar and nameservers stay where they are. Let's Encrypt certificates are issued automatically and managed on your device. The free tier uses a pluggie.net subdomain.
Yes. The free tier includes one tunnel with 1 GB at full speed per 30 days and a free pluggie.net subdomain, with no email address and no credit card required. After the cap the tunnel keeps working at 128 Kbps until the next reset. Custom domains and more bandwidth are on paid plans from £5/month.
No, and you do not have to commit. Pluggie runs alongside whatever you use today — install the Home Assistant app or Docker container, paste your key, and test it on the free tier before changing anything. If it does not suit you, delete the tunnel and nothing else was touched.

Try it alongside what you already use

Free tier, no email, no card. Five minutes to find out if it fits.

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