Deploy tinyproxy on Fly.io

Deploy tinyproxy on Fly.io Using the Free Tier to Get a Free VPN

Fly.io is a cloud platform that lets you run backend services on global edge nodes as easily as deploying a local Docker container.

Each account includes 3 free shared-cpu-1x 256MB virtual machines (Firecracker microVMs), 30GB outbound traffic per month, and 3GB of storage.

I use these free resources to set up a proxy service, implemented with tinyproxy.

Preparation

We need to prepare three files:

• tinyproxy.conf: configuration file for tinyproxy
• Dockerfile: Docker build file
• fly.toml: application configuration file for Fly.io

tinyproxy.conf

Write the following content into tinyproxy.conf:

User nobody
Group nogroup

Listen 0.0.0.0
Port 8888

Timeout 600

MaxClients 100

DisableViaHeader Yes

Allow 0.0.0.0/0

ConnectPort 443
ConnectPort 563

LogLevel Info

BasicAuth user password

Dockerfile

Write the following content into Dockerfile:

FROM alpine:3.19

RUN apk add --no-cache tinyproxy

COPY tinyproxy.conf /etc/tinyproxy/tinyproxy.conf

EXPOSE 8888

CMD ["tinyproxy", "-d", "-c", "/etc/tinyproxy/tinyproxy.conf"]

fly.toml

Write the following content into fly.toml:

app = 'app-name'
primary_region = 'iad'
swap_size_mb = 512

[build]
  dockerfile = 'Dockerfile'

[[services]]
  internal_port = 8888
  protocol = "tcp"
  processes = ['app']

  [[services.ports]]
    port = 443
    handlers = ["tls"]

[[vm]]
  cpu_kind = 'shared'
  cpus = 1
  memory_mb = 256

Deployment

Once all files are ready, we can start deploying using flyctl.

Install flyctl

macOS

brew install flyctl

or

curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

Linux

curl -L https://fly.io/install.sh | sh

Windows

pwsh -Command "iwr https://fly.io/install.ps1 -useb | iex"

Log in to Fly.io

You must log in before continuing:

fly auth login

Create the Application

First, create an application on Fly.io.

fly launch --no-deploy

Since we already created fly.toml, Fly will detect the existing file.

If the app name in the file conflicts with an existing application, Fly will report an error.

Deploy the Application

fly deploy

Fly will build the Docker image, push it, and start the application.

Allocate a Free Shared IP

fly ips allocate-v4 --shared

The --shared flag is mandatory. Without it, Fly will allocate a paid dedicated IP.

Check Status

First, check the application status:

fly status

App
  Name     = app-name
  Owner    = personal
  Hostname = app-name.fly.dev
  Image    = app-name:deployment-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Machines
PROCESS ID              VERSION REGION  STATE   ROLE    CHECKS  LAST UPDATED
app     xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  14      iad     started                 2026-01-23T06:53:45Z

Pay attention to Hostname and Machines:

• Hostname: the domain name assigned by Fly, used to access the proxy
• Machines: whether the VM is running correctly and how many instances exist (to avoid exceeding free limits)

Next, check IP information:

fly ips list

VERSION IP              TYPE                    REGION  CREATED AT
v4      xx.xxx.xx.xxx  public ingress (shared)         Jan 1 0001 00:00

An IP with shared in the TYPE column indicates a shared (free) IP. Besides accessing via the hostname, you can also connect directly using this IP.

Finally, check the services:

fly services list

Services
PROTOCOL        PORTS           HANDLERS        FORCE HTTPS     PROCESS GROUP   REGIONS MACHINES
TCP             xxx => xxxx     [TLS]           False           app             iad     1

Ensure that PORTS and HANDLERS match your configuration.

Test the Connection

At this point, the proxy should be running. Test it:

curl -v -x http://hostname -U 'user:password' https://ifconfig.me

Configure Browser Proxy

In most cases, we only need a proxy for browser traffic rather than the entire operating system. Configuring the proxy at the browser level also helps conserve bandwidth.

The recommended browser extension is SwitchOmega.

Happy hacking!!!