I'd say to start with CF tunnels unless you need non-web based applications. Cloudflare tunnels require you to have a domain, though.

It has the added benefit that you have network monitoring, logging and some filtering for security that they do on top and you get to manage everything from their web interface.

be warned that the first time can be a bit confusing, but since it's done using their web interface it's easier than if you have a problem making wireguard work.

1. Create a tunnel with a public hostname that will be the url to access that service. During the creation of the hostname specify you want it protected by L7 application firewall.
2. Create a new self-hosted application in cloudflare application section and for starters use the default login email and in rules specify the list of emails that are allowed to login

you should now be able to access your application from anywhere.

Alternatively, if you have a DNS server in your home network you can add a private IP range to your tunnel. Let's say 192.168.0.0/24. Then when you connect with their pseudo-VPN (cloudflare warp or cloudflare ONE) you can directly use your home network's ip address from that device. If you tell your device to use a local DNS server that resolves your internal services, you'll be able to connect to them that way.

I want to have the same setup as you! Do you have any guides on how you did it?

My router supported OpenVPN out of the box so I just use that and have remote connections disabled in all of my software

I'm curious what the other, more advanced users here have to tell me about it because I'm still new to the self hosted stuff and that was the first thing I thought of to do

Twingate has been my go to. It’s amazing. Highly recommended.

My advice: only forward ports 8080 and 443, then make sure that you have fail2ban or crossed properly set up on your reverse proxy. After that, you are pretty much fine as long as you keep on top of updating your containers.

I would be careful about which apps you proxy. Idk why you need to access the admin portal for pi hole worldwide. If you really want to do that, you should set up a vpn.