Expose Your Localhost app to the Internet with Custom domain using Cloudflare Tunnel

Since you can’t use a custom domain with the free ngrok plan, but your domain is hosted on Cloudflare, here’s a fully free, reliable alternative:

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Use Cloudflare Tunnel — 100% FREE, allows custom domains

You’ll expose your localhost app directly through your own domain using cloudflared.

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Goal:

To expose your local app (e.g. running on http://localhost:3000) to:

https://subdomain.yourdomain.com

e.g.

https://local.janakkumarshrestha0.com.np

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Step-by-Step: Use Cloudflare Tunnel with Custom Domain

1. Make sure your domain is on Cloudflare

• Go to https://dash.cloudflare.com
• Ensure your .com.np domain is added and uses Cloudflare’s nameservers.

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2. Install cloudflared on your machine

For Debian/Ubuntu-based systems:

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

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3. Authenticate cloudflared with Cloudflare

cloudflared tunnel login

This opens a browser. Log in to your Cloudflare account and authorize.

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4. CCreate a new tunnel. You can name it whatever you like

cloudflared tunnel create mytunnel

This will generate a credentials-file and tunnel ID inside /home/USERNAME/.cloudflared/.

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5. Create a config file

Create the file:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/cloudflared
sudo nano /etc/cloudflared/config.yml

Paste this, replacing the values:

tunnel: YOUR_TUNNEL_ID
credentials-file: /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.cloudflared/YOUR_TUNNEL_ID.json

ingress:
  - hostname: local.janakkumarshrestha0.com.np
    service: http://localhost:3000
  - service: http_status:404

Replace:

• YOUR_TUNNEL_ID with your actual tunnel ID
• YOUR_USERNAME with your Linux username
• service with your running any application on http://localhost:PORR_NO
• local.janakkumarshrestha0.com.np with the custom subdomain you want

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6. Route DNS through the tunnel

cloudflared tunnel route dns mytunnel local.janakkumarshrestha0.com.np

Cloudflare will automatically add the correct DNS record (CNAME).

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7. Start the tunnel

cloudflared tunnel run mytunnel

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DONE! Your local site is now live at:

https://local.janakkumarshrestha0.com.np

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Optional: Auto-start the tunnel at boot

You can enable the tunnel as a system service:

sudo cloudflared service install
sudo systemctl start cloudflared
sudo systemctl enable cloudflared
sudo systemctl status cloudflared

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Secure with Access Rules (Optional)

You can protect your tunnel with Cloudflare Access (Google login, OTP, etc.) — all free.

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