Where to get servers
tunelly is a client: it reads a configuration and opens a tunnel to the server that configuration names. We do not run servers, sell access to any, or recommend a provider — there is nothing on this page to buy, and no list of anyone to buy from. What follows is simply how a configuration reaches an app like this one.
1. You run the server
A virtual machine from any hosting company, plus one of the server-side implementations of the protocols listed on the front page, is the whole of it. The server prints a link or a configuration file when it is set up; that is what goes into the app. This is the only arrangement in which nobody but you can see where your traffic goes.
2. Somebody runs it for you
An employer, a university or a provider hands out either a subscription address — one URL that returns a list of servers and keeps it up to date — or a single share link. Both work. Everything about that arrangement is between you and them: what it costs, whether it is fast, how long it lasts, and what they log. Their policy is the one that governs your traffic, not ours; we have no relationship with them and cannot answer for them.
3. Somebody shares one with you
A single link, from a person who runs a server and does not mind another device on it. Treat it as a credential: a share link contains the key to that server, so anyone you forward it to can use it as you.
Putting it in the app
- A subscription address. Add it once. The app fetches the list, and refreshes it on the schedule the provider asks for, so servers that are added or retired appear and disappear on their own.
- A single link. Paste it. If it is already on the clipboard when you open the add screen, the app offers it rather than making you paste.
- Several links at once. Paste them together, one per line; they arrive as one group.
Nothing you add leaves the device except to reach the server it names. The privacy policy says exactly which requests the app makes and to whom.
A word on what a tunnel does
It moves the point at which your traffic enters the internet. It does not make you anonymous, and the operator of the server you chose can see the traffic you send through it. Use servers you have a reason to trust, and use them in accordance with the law that applies to you.