head to head · open source
cloudflared vs docktail
cloudflared has 16,184 GitHub stars, 1,487 forks, 545 open issues and last shipped yesterday. docktail has 1,287 stars, 49 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. cloudflared leads on adoption by 1,157% (16,184 vs 1,287 stars). cloudflared is written in Go under Apache-2.0; docktail is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. cloudflared has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, docktail 4%. cloudflared was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (reverse-proxy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| cloudflared | docktail | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-19 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 49 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick cloudflared if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick docktail if
- You want the docktail feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and docktail fits your workflow better
About cloudflared
Cloudflare Tunnel client Contains the command line client for Cloudflare Tunnel, a tunneling daemon that proxies traffic from the Cloudflare network to your origins. This daemon sits between Cloudflare network and your origin (e.g. a webserver). Cloudflare attracts client requests and sends them to you via this daemon, without requiring you to poke holes on your firewall your origin can remain as closed as possible. Extensive documentation can be found in the Cloudflare Tunnel section of the Cloudflare Docs. All usages related with proxying to your origins are available under cloudflared tunnel help . You can…
read the full cloudflared overview →
About docktail
🍸 DockTail Unleash your containers as Tailscale Services. DockTail watches Docker containers, reads docktail. labels, and exposes matching containers as Tailscale Services. App containers do not need published Docker ports by default; DockTail proxies directly to their Docker network IPs. Why DockTail? DockTail uses native Tailscale Services, not per container Tailscale devices. ¹ Depends on proxy and Docker network setup. ² Depends on the sidecar template and app network setup. ³ You configure how the service host reaches the backend yourself. ⁴ ScaleTail is template based, so each app usually starts from its…
read the full docktail overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is cloudflared or docktail more popular?
cloudflared has 16,184 GitHub stars and docktail has 1,287. cloudflared has the larger community by that measure.
Are cloudflared and docktail free?
Both are open source. cloudflared is licensed under Apache-2.0 and docktail under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between cloudflared and docktail?
cloudflared is written in Go and docktail in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, cloudflared or docktail?
Choose cloudflared if you want the larger community (16,184 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose docktail if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.