AppTunnel vs inlets-pro, ngrok & Cloudflare Tunnel

These are capable tunneling tools — but they're general-purpose infrastructure primitives, not end-user application delivery platforms.

What They Do Well

  • • Fast and simple TCP/HTTP tunneling
  • • Easy firewall traversal
  • • Lightweight and quick to deploy

What They Don't Do

  • • Tunnels require manual configuration per service — nothing is automatic
  • • No always-on tunnel management tied to user identity or permissions
  • • No application installation, update, or rollback system
  • • No COM/.NET/OLE registration logic
  • • No central app catalog, per-user access control, or environment management
  • • No end-user tray experience — users interact with raw tunnel tooling, not their applications

How AppTunnel's Tunneling is Different

  • • Always-on: tunnels establish automatically when the user logs in and stay open — no per-app setup, no manual commands
  • • Identity-aware: which tunnels a user can access is controlled by your admin, per environment
  • • Any TCP/UDP protocol: SQL Server, PostgreSQL, proprietary protocols, internal APIs — if it runs over TCP or UDP, AppTunnel can tunnel it
  • • Integrated: the tunnel and the app are one unit — the tray delivers the app and connects it, transparently

AppTunnel gives you purpose-built always-on tunneling plus full application lifecycle management — designed to work together from day one.