With SSH it is easier to do key authentication. Certificate authentication is supported but it is a little more hassle. Don’t use password authentication as it is deprecated and not secure.

The key with SSH (openssh specifically) is that it is heavily audited so it is unlikely to have any issues. The problem is when you start exposing self hosted services with lots of attack surface. You need to be very careful when exposing services as web services are very hard to secure and can be the source of a compromise that you may or may not be aware of.

It is much safer to use a overlay VPN or some other frontend for authentication like mTLS or an authenticated reverse proxy.