An agent, not a network.
Mesh VPNs, generic tunnels and anyfyio each solve a real problem. Here's what each one does, including the cases where you shouldn't pick us.
anyfyio
"I want to chat with my home GPU from my phone, and share ComfyUI with a friend."
One agent on the machine. You reach its services through the relay, with chat, galleries and notebooks built in.
Mesh VPN · Tailscale, ZeroTier
"I want my laptop, NAS and servers on one private network."
A client on every device and a virtual network between them. Every device can reach every other, often peer-to-peer.
Generic tunnel · ngrok, Cloudflare Tunnel
"I want a public URL for a dev server or a webhook."
Maps a local port to a URL. Great at that. It has no idea of devices, models or who on your team should see what.
Side by side
| Feature |  | Mesh VPN | Generic tunnel |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Agent + relay for reaching AI machines | Virtual private network between devices | Public URL for a local port |
| What you install | One agent on each machine you reach | A client on every device | One agent per host |
| Virtual network adapter | No | Yes | No |
| Inbound ports opened | None | None | None |
| Device-to-device traffic | No. Services only, via relay | Yes. Full mesh | No |
| Path | Always one relay hop | Direct when possible, relay fallback | Provider edge |
| Built-in chat for local models | Yes. Web, iOS, Android | No. Bring your own client | No |
| ComfyUI / Jupyter viewers | Yes | No | No |
| OpenAI-compatible endpoint | Yes, per Share | No | You build it |
| Per-device identity | Certificate per device | Node key per device | Per tunnel or token |
| Public share links | Yes. Password, expiry, key | Limited | Yes |
| Subnet routing / exit nodes | No | Yes | No |
Honest note
When you should not use anyfyio
If any of these describe you, use a mesh VPN. It's the right tool, and we'd rather you pick it.
- 01 Every device needs to reach every other device directly. That's a full mesh.
- 02 You need subnet routing, exit nodes or a whole LAN behind one node.
- 03 You move large files between machines and want peer-to-peer speed. anyfyio always goes through a relay.
- 04 You're replacing a corporate VPN for hundreds of laptops.
Still the right fit?
Try it on one machine. Free, no card.