Build Your Own Ngrok Alternative Using Cloudflare Tunnels and NGINX

Securely exposing your local development server to the internet is a common need, especially for webhooks, remote testing, or temporary demos. Tools like Ngrok are popular but come with limitations on free tiers and may not suit privacy-conscious developers.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to build your own Ngrok-like tunneling system using Cloudflare Tunnels (Argo Tunnel) and NGINX — completely free, fast, and production-ready.

🧰 Requirements

• A domain name managed in Cloudflare DNS
• Ubuntu/Linux server (for tunneling agent)
• Local app running on localhost:3000 (example)
• NGINX installed
• Cloudflare Tunnel client (cloudflared)

Step 1: Add Your Domain to Cloudflare

1. Sign in to Cloudflare
2. Add your domain.
3. Set your nameservers to those provided by Cloudflare.
4. Wait for propagation to complete.

Step 2: Install cloudflared

    

    wget -q https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
    sudo dpkg -i cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
    

Step 3: Create a Tunnel

cloudflared tunnel login

• This will open a browser and ask for Cloudflare login.
• Choose the domain you want to use.

Then:

​cloudflared tunnel create my-tunnel​

This generates credentials at ~/.cloudflared​ and creates a tunnel ID.

Step 4: Configure the Tunnel Routing

Create a config file:

sudo nano /etc/cloudflared/config.yml​

tunnel: <TUNNEL_ID>

credentials-file: /root/.cloudflared/<TUNNEL_ID>.json

ingress:

  - hostname: test.yourdomain.com

    service: http://localhost:3000

  - service: http_status:404

Replace <TUNNEL_ID> and domain accordingly.

Step 5: Run the Tunnel

cloudflared tunnel run my-tunnel​

Test your URL: https://test.yourdomain.com

Optional: Run as a Service

Create service file:

        

        sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/cloudflared.service

        [Unit]
        Description=Cloudflare Tunnel
        After=network.target
        
        [Service]
        TimeoutStartSec=0
        Type=simple
        Restart=always
        ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/cloudflared tunnel run my-tunnel
        
        [Install]
        WantedBy=multi-user.target

        
    

 sudo systemctl daemon-reexec​

​sudo systemctl enable --now cloudflared​

Step 6: Use NGINX for Local Reverse Proxy (Optional)

If your app needs specific routes or SSL:

       

        server {
        listen 3000;
    
            location / {
                proxy_pass http://localhost:5000;
                proxy_set_header Host $host;
                proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            }
        }
       
   

Restart nginx: sudo systemctl restart nginx​

Use Cases

• Webhooks from Stripe, GitHub, etc.
• Remote demos for clients
• Local API testing from the cloud

📂 Project Structure Summary

/var/www/your-app
 └── NGINX → localhost:5000
 cloudflared → tunnel to test.yourdomain.com

Hope you find this helpful!!