Quick Tunnels adds email access control without an account

Cloudflare’s Quick Tunnels can now restrict a local development preview to specified email addresses or domains. Visitors verify their email with a one-time PIN, and cloudflared checks the allowed list on your machine. Neither side needs a Cloudflare account. The protection is optional: leaving out the new flag still creates a public preview link.

Cloudflare · Oct 2, 2026

Why it matters

A demo shared from a laptop no longer needs to be open to everyone who obtains its URL.

More context

Try cloudflared 2026.9.3 or later with --allowed-mail and inspect the startup confirmation. The feature is free and accountless. Restart the tunnel to change its allowed list; ending the process ends access.

Keep in mind

This is browser-based email authentication for temporary previews, not a stable production hostname or a complete application-security layer. Richer identity rules require the account-based product. 1min has not tested the flow.

Original read