Nabu Casa vs Cloudflare Tunnel for Home Assistant - which one is worth it?
Nabu Casa is ~7,50 EUR/month for remote access + Alexa/Google + zero setup. Cloudflare Tunnel is 0 EUR but needs a domain and roughly an hour of work. What to pick in 2026 - and when neither is the right answer.
See the comparisonNabu Casa vs Cloudflare Tunnel - the facts
| Nabu Casa | Cloudflare Tunnel | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 7,50 EUR/month, or 75 EUR/year paid annually - subscription | Free + domain (~9-12 EUR/year if bought via CF) |
| Setup time | 30 seconds - toggle in HA UI, log in | 20-30 minutes - CF account, domain, cloudflared, Access, DNS |
| Works with | Home Assistant ONLY | Any HTTP/HTTPS service (HA, Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Grafana...) |
| Alexa/Google assistants | Built-in (Nabu's main value) | Not included (manual webhook config required) |
| URL | Random hash: hashed-token.ui.nabu.casa/?auth=... | Your domain: ha.yourdomain.com |
| Supports the HA project | Yes - Nabu Casa is the HA core team's company | No - it's a Cloudflare product, unrelated to HA |
5 scenarios where Nabu Casa is the right answer
You want Alexa or Google Assistant
The cloud integration with Alexa/Google Home is Nabu's core value. Without it, you're stuck building your own webhook + ngrok pipeline + manual skill registration - hours of work plus ongoing maintenance. With Nabu, one toggle and it works. If you control HA by voice, Nabu just pays for itself.
You want to support the people building HA
Nabu Casa is the company behind Home Assistant - the subscription funnels directly into platform development. If you use HA daily and 75 EUR/year doesn't sting, that's a fair gesture. For a lot of users that's a sufficient reason without even comparing tech.
Zero technical setup - flip a switch and it works
Everything happens inside HA UI: Settings → Cloud → Login → Enable Remote Access. Done. No SSH, no .yml files, no DNS changes. CF Tunnel needs a CF account, a domain added to CF DNS, cloudflared install, tunnel config, DNS records, and optionally Access. For non-technical users that's a chasm.
Cloud backup + remote snapshots
Nabu provides remote HA backups (snapshots) as part of the bundle. If you don't run your own rsync/borgbackup to off-site storage, this is genuine value - one switch and you're protected against fire/theft of the Raspberry Pi.
No appetite or time for maintenance
Nabu = managed service. Protocol upgrades, SSL renewal, DDoS protection - all on them. CF Tunnel is also managed by CF, but per-domain/per-policy config is on you. For the "I just want it to work" crowd, Nabu requires less brain time over the long run.
5 scenarios where CF Tunnel is the better choice
You self-host more than just HA
You also run Jellyfin, Nextcloud, Grafana, Vaultwarden, Frigate. Nabu won't help - it works ONLY with HA. CF Tunnel handles any HTTP/HTTPS service through the same domain: jellyfin.x.com, ha.x.com, files.x.com. One setup, ten panels.
You want a short, branded URL
Nabu hands you `kxlqz9...rand.ui.nabu.casa/?auth=token` - basically unmemorable, can't be shared with family without copy-paste. CF Tunnel: `ha.yourdomain.com` - short, branded, you can text it. Self-hosters care about this detail more than you'd think.
Zero subscription fee - one-off domain cost
Nabu = 75 EUR/year for the lifetime of the subscription. CF Tunnel = ~9 EUR/year for the domain (.com or country TLD), zero tunnel fees. After 3 years on annual billing: Nabu 225 EUR, CF Tunnel 27 EUR. If you don't need Alexa/Google, the math is obvious.
You want Cloudflare Access (SSO before HA)
Force a Google/GitHub login BEFORE traffic reaches HA. Someone opens ha.yourdomain.com, sees a Google login with an email allowlist first, only then reaches the HA panel. Free up to 50 users. Nabu has no such layer - you rely entirely on the HA password.
Global edge - low latency from US/Asia
Cloudflare runs 200+ PoPs worldwide. Your HA panel gets cached close to each visitor - a cousin in the US sees the page in 30 ms instead of 150 ms. Nabu hosts mainly EU/US - travellers in Asia notice slower load times noticeably.
When neither is ideal
If (a) you don't need Alexa/Google, (b) you don't have a domain and don't want to buy one, (c) you run more than just HA (Jellyfin, Nextcloud, NAS) - Nabu is too narrow, CF Tunnel is too much setup. SmartHomeEntry: short URL `your-home.smarthomeentry.com`, works with any HTTP/HTTPS (like CF), one-line installer (like Nabu), EU billing in PLN/EUR, no domain needed. Plus, for installers managing multiple homes: a multi-tenant dashboard with SLA PDFs - something Nabu has never offered.
Frequently asked questions
Technically yes - they're different access mechanisms. In practice it makes little sense: Nabu gives you a hashed URL, CF Tunnel gives you your own domain. Most people pick one. Edge case: Nabu for Alexa/Google integration + CF Tunnel for daily access - works, but you'd pay ~95 EUR/year combined.
No. HA is open-source and stays that way regardless of your subscription. Nabu Casa funds development but doesn't control it - HA is an independent open-source project (HA Foundation). You can support the team in other ways: GitHub donate, Nabu store purchases, code contributions.
Adds 10-30 ms latency (your city → nearest CF PoP → your home). For HA UI it's imperceptible. For real-time camera streams CF buffers, but it's rarely a real problem. In practice users don't notice the difference between LAN access and CF Tunnel access.
CF sees metadata (who, when, byte counts), but HTTPS traffic stays E2E encrypted between your browser and the HA server. Exception: if you set SSL/TLS to "Flexible" - then CF sees the body. Set "Full Strict" in SSL/TLS settings and CF is just a router.
Nabu - vendor lock-in for Alexa/Google (you'd manually rebuild webhooks against the Alexa Skill API). Plain HA access goes dark during migration. CF Tunnel - migrating a domain to another DNS is an hour of work. Cloudflare is publicly traded; the 5-year shutdown probability is roughly zero. As a safety net keep Tailscale as a fallback VPN, or run a SmartHomeEntry agent that exposes a URL independent of CF.
See other comparisons
A short URL without 75 EUR/year and without buying a domain
SmartHomeEntry gives you `your-home.smarthomeentry.com` in 5 minutes, works with HA and every other service. Plan with Alexa/Google integration for HA users: 7 EUR/month.