Developers usually start looking beyond ngrok when a hobby habit turns into a bill that follows traffic, when the free tier's ceilings get in the way of a demo, or when they would rather run the relay on a server they control. The options below range from a single SSH command to self-hosted proxies, and one is a webhook service instead of a general tunnel.
Short answer: Looking for a replacement for ngrok? sish, Inlets and Localhost.run come first in our localhost tunneling tool ranking. Where a category has smaller vendors worth recommending, they occupy the first three places and the big brands come below them. Start with sish if you want a private, MIT-licensed relay reachable with plain ssh. The 11 entries that follow are all ranked in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026; each one explains what sets it apart from ngrok.
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Pricing: Four tiers: Free with a one-time credit, Hobbyist, Pay-as-you-go with metered overage, Enterprise quoted by sales; published monthly prices
Established in: Not stated by the vendor
Built for: Teams wanting auth, rate limiting and routing rules in front of a dev service
Not for: Solo developers wanting a fixed price with no usage meter
01
Why buyers look past ngrok
01
The bill follows your traffic
On the pricing page we read, Pay-as-you-go is USD 20 a month with USD 20 of usage included. After that, data beyond 5 GB costs USD 0.10 per GB, requests beyond 100k cost USD 1 per 100k, and every user past the third adds USD 5. A busy week of webhook testing can therefore change the invoice, which a flat fee would not.
02
Small plans carry small ceilings
The Free plan allows 3 online endpoints, 1 GB of transfer out, 20k HTTP/S requests and one development domain, with a one-time USD 5 credit that works only on Free. Hobbyist at USD 10 a month raises transfer to 5 GB and requests to 100k but lists no custom domains. Anything beyond that means the metered plan.
03
Much of the product is hosted edge
ngrok's own pages describe traffic passing through its global network, with authentication, routing, WAF and DDoS protection applied first. The docs page we read does not say whether the service can run outside that cloud, apart from the Kubernetes operator. Its terms name ngrok, Inc. under Californian law, with no address or country of incorporation given.
you want a command-line tunnel with a self-hosting route
#11
03
What each one does differently
1
sish
Not stated by the vendor · See profile
sish needs nothing on the client except SSH, and its README presents it as an ngrok-style endpoint you deploy with Docker on your own VM. The software is MIT licensed and written by Antonio Mika. A public instance at tuns.sh exists for quick use. Certificates, patching and uptime of any private server become your tasks.
Switch from ngrok if you want a private, MIT-licensed relay reachable with plain ssh.
Inlets is a trademark of OpenFaaS Ltd, registered in the UK. Pro costs USD 25 a month for Personal and USD 50 for Commercial, with no metering, and the home page states no rate limits on HTTP and TCP tunnels. You run the tunnel server on your own cloud VM, though a managed Inlets Cloud comes with a subscription.
Switch from ngrok if a fixed monthly price matters more than a free tier.
Localhost.run asks for no download and no signup: a command such as ssh -R 80:localhost:3000 localhost.run opens a tunnel with automatic HTTPS and a temporary domain. The Custom Domain plan costs USD 9 a month billed annually and allows up to 5 simultaneous tunnels. The page names no operator or country.
Switch from ngrok if you need a throwaway public URL from the SSH client already installed.
frp is a reverse proxy published on GitHub under Apache-2.0 by the user fatedier. You run frps on a host with a public IP and frpc on the machine behind NAT, for TCP, UDP, HTTP or HTTPS. Even its peer-to-peer mode needs that server. The README calls it a non-profit project kept by a few people.
Switch from ngrok if you already have a public server and want a plain open source proxy.
zrok is built on OpenZiti and operated by NetFoundry, Inc. Its hosted free plan allows 5 GB a day, 25 environments and 50 share backends, with community support only. A self-hosted build under Apache-2.0 shares the codebase of the public service and states no limits. A commercial tier is available by contacting NetFoundry.
Switch from ngrok if you want private shares with an open source option for hosting them yourself.
Pinggy offers HTTP(S), TCP, UDP and TLS tunnels from a desktop app, a CLI or Node.js and Python SDKs, with servers in six regions including Europe and the UK. Its free tier cuts tunnels after 60 minutes and gives random subdomains. Persistent domains need Pro, and the home page we read shows no prices.
Switch from ngrok if you want a request inspector and several server regions without installing a binary.
Expose is made by Beyond Code. The Hobby tier needs no card but has a time limit, random URLs and one EU server. Pro costs USD 79 per user a year before tax, adding custom domains and a global server network, while Team is USD 229 a year for up to 10 users. The open source core can be self-hosted.
Switch from ngrok if you prefer a yearly per-user price and a self-hostable core.
Hookdeck is a managed webhook gateway first, and its CLI for receiving events on localhost is one feature inside it. It carries events, not arbitrary traffic. The free Developer plan gives 10,000 events a month with 3-day retention, and Team starts at USD 39 a month with 7-day retention and overage per event.
Switch from ngrok if your only reason for tunnelling is to receive and replay webhooks.
LocalXpose is run by Freeport Cloud, Inc., whose footer shows a Delaware address. Starter needs no card and allows 2 active HTTP/HTTPS tunnels behind a warning page, while PRO is USD 8 a month, or USD 96 billed annually, with 10 tunnels. Tunnels cover HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, TLS and UDP, with request logging.
Switch from ngrok if you want a low monthly price and UDP or TLS tunnels from a managed service.
Serveo is a hosted relay reached over standard SSH, WireGuard or a beta Chrome extension. The free tier allows 3 active tunnels and custom subdomains behind an interstitial warning page. Pro costs USD 6 for a ten-day pass, USD 6 a month or USD 60 a year, and removes the tunnel cap. Its terms were not read.
Switch from ngrok if you want a cheap short-term pass rather than a subscription.
Tunnelmole is a command-line tool that gives a local server a public URL, through its cloud service or a host you run. The site calls it open source and optionally self-hostable, though it names no licence. The copyright line names Tunnelmole Pty Ltd. Its pricing link goes to an external dashboard whose amounts we did not read.
Switch from ngrok if you want a command-line tunnel with a self-hosting route.
You want a private relay you run yourself over plain SSH
sish: It is MIT licensed, deploys with Docker on your own VM, and needs nothing on the client but SSH.
02
You want a fixed monthly price whatever the traffic
Inlets: Pro is USD 25 for Personal or USD 50 for Commercial, unmetered, and you supply the cloud VM.
03
You only need a throwaway URL for a quick test
Localhost.run: One ssh command opens a tunnel with automatic HTTPS and no signup.
04
You receive webhooks and nothing else
Hookdeck: Its CLI delivers events to localhost, and the free Developer plan allows 10,000 events a month with 3-day retention.
05
You want UDP or TLS tunnels at a low monthly price
LocalXpose: PRO is USD 8 a month with 10 tunnels, and tunnels cover HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, TLS and UDP.
04
When ngrok is still the right choice
ngrok stays the better choice when you want a single hosted service that covers the whole path from a laptop to production traffic: the Traffic Policy rules language for authentication, rate limiting and rewriting, SDKs for Go, JavaScript, Python and Rust, a Terraform provider and a Kubernetes operator. If usage is light, the free or USD 10 plan may cover you, so compare real monthly traffic before moving.
05
What moving off ngrok involves
01
Reserved domains and callback URLs
Webhook senders, OAuth providers and mobile apps often hold your ngrok domain as an allowed callback. List every place the URL is registered, then update each one before cutting over. Free or random URLs on other services change on every start, so check that your target offers a stable name.
02
Traffic Policy rules have no direct twin
Rules for authentication, rate limiting, header rewriting and IP restrictions live in ngrok's YAML or JSON policies. Most alternatives forward traffic and leave those jobs to you or to a reverse proxy in front. Write down which rules you rely on before choosing, and test them on the new route.
03
Self-hosted relays need a public address
sish, frp and Inlets all depend on a server with a reachable IP, a DNS record and a certificate you keep renewed. Budget an afternoon for the first setup and check the firewall allows the ports your tunnels use.
06
Questions about replacing ngrok
6 answers
How much does ngrok cost?
The pricing page lists Free at USD 0, Hobbyist at USD 10 a month, Pay-as-you-go at USD 20 a month with metered overage, and Enterprise by contacting sales.
The page does not name a currency code, only the dollar sign, so check the live page before budgeting.
What does the ngrok free plan include?
It allows 3 online endpoints, 1 GB of data transfer out, 20k HTTP/S requests, one development domain and one user. A one-time USD 5 credit valid for a year applies only on the Free plan, and no separate trial is named.
Which tunnel works with only the SSH I already have?
Localhost.run and Serveo are both reached with a standard ssh command, and sish expects an SSH client too, though you host that one. Localhost.run needs no signup for its free tier.
Can I run the tunnel server on my own machine?
Yes, with sish, frp, Inlets, zrok and Tunnelmole, each of which describes a self-hosted route. sish and frp are MIT and Apache-2.0 projects, Inlets Pro is commercial, and zrok's self-hosted build is Apache-2.0. You own patching and certificates.
Is there a fixed-price alternative to metered billing?
Inlets sells Personal at USD 25 and Commercial at USD 50 a month with no metering, using a VM you provide. Expose bills per user per year, and LocalXpose lists PRO at USD 8 a month with bandwidth unlimited under its acceptable use policy.
Where is ngrok based?
The pages we read do not say. Its terms name ngrok, Inc. and Californian law, but give no address or country of incorporation. Alternatives differ: Inlets names a UK company, LocalXpose a Delaware address, and many others state nothing.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Checked and edited by Sebastiaan Smits, last on 7 November 2026. The editorial process explains the method.
