Relay Overview

What a Viaalink Relay is

Viaalink Relay is your own tunnel server, with automatic HTTPS.

A Viaalink Relay is the door that gives you an address: one address where people and phones reach what you share, from anywhere. Your machines connect out to your Relay over an outbound SSH reverse tunnel, and the Relay publishes them as HTTPS addresses on your own domain and carries calls through firewalls.

What it does

Every Viaalink Relay installation includes eight core capabilities out of the box:

1. One-command publishing — publish any local web application or development server at your own subdomain with a single command using the Viaalink CLI (via publish 3000).
2. Automatic HTTPS certificates — automatic Let’s Encrypt certificates, including wildcards across five supported DNS-01 providers (Porkbun, Cloudflare, Route53, DigitalOcean, and GoDaddy).
3. Custom domain management — bring your own domains with per-domain certificate choice (dns for DNS-01 wildcards, http for HTTP-01 on port 80, or none when upstream proxies terminate TLS).
4. TCP forwarding and private links — forward SSH, databases, and custom TCP ports, or establish private named links between authorised machines.
5. Browser setup page — an integrated web management interface at /_relay/dashboard to manage your license, custom domains, authorised user keys, router port mappings, and active connections.
6. Automatic router port forwarding — zero-configuration router mapping via UPnP or native ASUSTOR EZ-Router integration, accompanied by the official ASUSTOR NAS application.
7. Built-in STUN/TURN for calls through firewalls — integrated STUN and TURN services that carry voice and video calls through restrictive firewalls and mobile carrier NAT.
8. Granular access control — password protection per link, approved device keys, registration invites, and IP or country allow and block lists.

Getting started

To run a Viaalink Relay, you need:

1. A machine to run it on — a Linux server (VPS), an ASUSTOR NAS in your office, or a local PC.
2. Your own domain name (such as example.com) — point relay.<your-domain> and *.relay.<your-domain> at your server so the Relay can issue automatic HTTPS certificates. See DNS Configuration.

Choose the installation guide for your environment:

• Requirements and Network Architecture — machine sizing, port assignments, and network prerequisites.
• Run Relay on Linux — standalone binary installation with systemd on Ubuntu, Debian, or Rocky Linux.
• Run Relay with Docker — container deployment using Docker Compose and bundled Caddy.
• Run Relay on ASUSTOR NAS — complete package setup and configuration for ADM 5.1+.
• Access Control and Security — passwords, device keys, and IP/country filtering rules.
• Relay Configuration Reference — complete reference of command-line flags and environment variables.
• Relay Operations and Maintenance — backups, log rotation, upgrades, and certificate renewal.

For developers connecting client devices, see Install the Viaalink CLI and Publishing Services.

Plans and licensing

• Free (€0/yr) includes up to 10 connected devices and calls through firewalls without requiring a license file (visitors to your published addresses are never counted).
• Paid plans (Personal €99/yr, Team €490/yr, Business €1.490/yr for 3 installations, and Enterprise from €3.500/yr) add commercial rights and fair-use device limits. Non-profit organisations with ANBI status under €250k receive Team free; other non-profits receive 50% off.

For details on license activation, offline validation, and renewals, see Relay Licensing. Compare all plans and limits on /relay#plans.