Localhost tunnelling tools give a service on your laptop a public address, so a client, a payment provider or a phone can reach it before deployment.
This guide orders fourteen products by who runs the relay, what a stable address costs, how tunnels are limited, and whether you can host the server yourself.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What localhost tunneling tools software does
Localhost tunnelling tools connect a development server behind NAT or a firewall to a public URL or port, so outsiders and webhook senders can reach it without inbound firewall rules.
Our order comes from five tests, taken in turn: effort to set up, what you really pay, what happens to your data on the way out, how locked in you are, and the intended customer. The ranking then gives places 1 to 3 to challengers outside the best-known brands, if the category has such vendors, and the incumbents follow. Reasons for the choice of tests, and for skipping a score out of ten, can be read on the how we work page.
Tiered by feature: random subdomains and a timeout on the entry tier, persistent domains on Pro, custom terms with dedicated servers on Enterprise; no prices on the home page
—
Developers testing non-HTTP services such as UDP or raw TCP from a laptop
Buyers who need published prices or a named legal owner
Tunnels you host yourself, sold at one flat monthly rate
Ranked #1 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestEurope
Two flat tiers make up the Pro price, Personal at 25 USD and Commercial at 50 USD a month, with no metering, billed monthly.
A managed Inlets Cloud in EU and US regions comes with the subscription, while Uplink, for your own Kubernetes cluster, is 250 USD a month with 10 tunnels. inletsctl and inlets-operator are MIT licensed; the Pro licence itself is commercial.
What stands out
Flat pricing
Own tunnel server
Kubernetes uplink
Where it costs you
No trial is named; the 30-day pay-and-cancel guarantee is the only safety net.
The tunnel server lives on a cloud VM that you provision, patch and pay for separately.
Right for
Developers who want predictable tunnel costs and are comfortable running one small VM
Wrong for
Anyone expecting a zero-cost throwaway tunnel for an afternoon
United KingdomFlat monthly Personal and Commercial tiers, unmetered; 30-day pay-and-cancel guarantee; managed cloud bundled with the subscription
SSH-only tunnelling you deploy with Docker on your own VM
Ranked #2 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
sish forwards https, wss and tcp traffic over plain SSH and can be deployed with Docker on your own VM. The repository lists the MIT licence, and the README describes the design as production-grade self-hosting.
A fully managed public instance at tuns.sh can be used immediately, which lets you test the idea before committing a server. No pricing, company or country appears on the documentation site.
What stands out
SSH tunnels
MIT licence
Docker deploy
Where it costs you
No company, support route or country is named, only the individual author.
Beyond the public tuns.sh instance, you operate the server yourself.
Right for
Individual developers who already live in SSH and want a private endpoint
Wrong for
Teams needing a vendor contract, support desk or billing portal
Not stated by the vendorMIT-licensed software with no plans or prices stated; the project also runs a public instance at tuns.sh
Browser-free tunnels with a 60-minute limit on the entry tier
Ranked #3 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
Access control on the home page covers HTTP Basic auth, bearer or key-based auth and IP whitelisting, plus a web debugger and live header manipulation. Servers run in the USA, Europe, the UK, Singapore, Brazil and Australia.
Node.js and Python SDKs exist beside the CLI. Pro unlocks persistent tunnels and custom or wildcard domains, but no figure appears. A contact address is given, yet no legal entity, owner or country.
What stands out
TCP, UDP and TLS
Request debugger
Six server regions
Where it costs you
Prices are not shown on the home page, so Pro cost cannot be compared in advance.
Self-hosting is reserved for the Enterprise tier.
Right for
Developers testing non-HTTP services such as UDP or raw TCP from a laptop
Wrong for
Buyers who need published prices or a named legal owner
Not stated by the vendorTiered by feature: random subdomains and a timeout on the entry tier, persistent domains on Pro, custom terms with dedicated servers on Enterprise; no prices on the home page
Zero-trust sharing on OpenZiti, hosted or run yourself
Ranked #4 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
Limits on the hosted plan are 5 daily GB, 25 environments, 50 share backends and 50 private access frontends. Beyond sharing public URLs, zrok offers private shares reached by an access frontend.
The same codebase powers the Apache-2.0 self-host option, described as running from a Raspberry Pi to enterprise scale. A larger plan is available from NetFoundry, but the pricing page gives neither a price nor its limits.
What stands out
OpenZiti overlay
Apache-2.0
Private shares
Where it costs you
The hosted plan allows 5 GB a day, so large test transfers hit the cap.
The commercial tier shows no price or limits, only a route to NetFoundry.
Right for
Teams wanting private, access-controlled shares with a self-hosting escape route
Wrong for
Anyone wanting a simple public URL with no concepts to learn
Not stated by the vendorHosted plan with daily bandwidth and environment caps; commercial tier via NetFoundry on enquiry; Apache-2.0 self-host build without stated limits
Apache-licensed reverse proxy for TCP, UDP, HTTP and HTTPS
Ranked #5 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
A reverse proxy for exposing a local server behind NAT or a firewall, supporting TCP, UDP, HTTP and HTTPS. The architecture is two programs: frps on a public host and frpc beside the service.
P2P mode (xtcp) still depends on an frps server for coordination. The licence is Apache-2.0, and the README describes a non-profit effort maintained by a few individuals rather than a vendor with a product team.
What stands out
Reverse proxy
Apache-2.0
Self-hosted only
Where it costs you
Only self-hosting is offered, so there is no hosted fallback when your VM fails.
No company or support contract stands behind it.
Right for
Operators who want full control and already manage a public-IP server
Wrong for
Anyone who needs a hosted URL working within minutes
Not stated by the vendorApache-2.0 licensed and self-hosted only; no vendor plans, prices or hosted service
Laravel-world tunnels from Beyond Code, billed per user per year
Ranked #6 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
Pro costs 79 per user per year (currency not named) and removes the time limit; Team is 229 per team per year with priority support and up to 10 users.
Taxes or VAT may be added at checkout, payments go through Paddle, and refunds are generally offered within 14 days on request. Access control, reserved subdomains and custom domains arrive with Pro. The open-source core can be self-hosted, though no licence is named.
What stands out
Per-user yearly
Custom domains
Paddle payments
Where it costs you
The Hobby tier has a time limit and random URLs, so it breaks saved webhook settings.
The licence of the self-hostable core is not stated on the page.
Right for
Small developer teams who prefer a yearly per-seat price over usage meters
Wrong for
Occasional users who only need a tunnel for a single session
Not stated by the vendorHobby tier with a time limit and random URLs; Pro charged per user per year; Team charged per team per year; prices net of tax
A tunnel opened with the SSH client already on your machine
Ranked #7 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Pricing is one paid step: Custom Domain at 9 per month when billed annually (the page uses the $ symbol). It brings priority bandwidth, TCP over TLS and wildcard subdomains.
Everything else rides on the SSH client, so Windows, Linux and macOS machines with OpenSSH work identically. A SKILL.md file aimed at AI coding agents. Ownership and location are not described anywhere on the page.
What stands out
SSH only
No signup
Custom Domain plan
Where it costs you
The no-signup tier gives only temporary domains, so webhook URLs change each session.
No operator company, owner or country is named.
Right for
Developers who want a throwaway HTTPS link and nothing to install first
Wrong for
Teams that need to know who operates the relay
Not stated by the vendorFree tier needing no signup, with temporary domains; Custom Domain plan billed annually per month; no download
Managed edge gateways with a Delaware address on the footer
Ranked #8 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
PRO is 8 per month, or 96 per year billed annually, with the currency shown only as $. A desktop client or CLI connects to global edge gateways, covering HTTP/HTTPS, TCP, TLS and UDP, with custom domains, Let's Encrypt certificates and request logging.
Enterprise slots bundle 10 tunnels and 10 reservations each, per the FAQ. The footer address is the stated one, and the page does not confirm it as the operating location.
What stands out
Four protocols
Card-free start
Request logging
Where it costs you
Starter tunnels carry an interstitial warning and an unstated time limit.
Unlimited bandwidth on PRO is subject to an acceptable use policy.
Right for
Developers needing UDP or TLS tunnels with logs on a modest monthly plan
Wrong for
Teams that must demo to clients without a warning page
United StatesStarter tier without a card; PRO billed monthly or yearly; Enterprise on custom terms; slots bundle tunnels and reservations
SSH, WireGuard or a Chrome extension opens the tunnel
Ranked #9 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Pro costs 6 for a ten-day pass, 6 per month or 60 per year (the page uses the $ symbol), adding unlimited tunnels, advanced key management and priority support.
A link to a self-hosted Serveo option is shown but gives no details, so treat it as unverified. Contact is an address on the serveo.net domain, and the Terms and Privacy pages were not read.
What stands out
SSH and WireGuard
Ten-day pass
Interstitial page
Where it costs you
The entry tier shows an interstitial warning page to your visitors.
No licence, company or country is stated on the page.
Right for
Developers who want a short paid burst without a monthly commitment
Wrong for
Buyers who need terms, privacy pages and an identified operator
Not stated by the vendorStarter tier with 3 tunnels; Pro as a ten-day pass, monthly or yearly; hosted service
MIT-licensed client that points at localtunnel.me by default
Ranked #10 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
The client's host option defaults to https://localtunnel.me and can point to another upstream server, and the server code lives in the localtunnel/server repository. Licence is MIT according to the organisation's GitHub page.
Because no plan structure, owner or country is stated, the thing you rely on is the public relay's availability, so any serious use points the host option at a server you control.
What stands out
MIT client
Public URL
Separate server repo
Where it costs you
No support route, plans or uptime statement appear on the pages read.
The public address redirects to a GitHub Pages site that could not be checked.
Right for
Quick scripted tests where the default public relay is acceptable
Wrong for
Production traffic needing documented uptime and a named operator
Not stated by the vendorMIT-licensed client; no plans or prices shown; the host option can target another server
Command-line tunnels from a cloud service or your own server
Ranked #11 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Self-hostablePricing on requestElsewhere
Its home page describes the project as 100% open source and optionally self hostable, yet names no licence, so that claim is the vendor's own and unchecked in the repository.
Hosting options are the cloud service or your own server. The Pricing link goes to an external dashboard where we did not see plans. Tunnelmole Pty Ltd appears in the copyright line; the company's country is not stated.
What stands out
CLI tool
Self-hostable
Pty Ltd operator
Where it costs you
Plans are not listed on the site, so cost cannot be compared.
No licence is named even though the site calls itself open.
Right for
Developers who want a plain CLI with a self-hosting option and no commitments
Wrong for
Anyone who must see plans and prices before trying
Not stated by the vendorPlans sit behind an external dashboard link; no amounts or billing basis stated; self-hostable
Local desktop tunnels with Basic Auth and Let's Encrypt TLS
Ranked #12 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Multiple simultaneous tunnels, Basic Auth or Bearer Token protection and automatic TLS via Let's Encrypt. The quickstart link sends visitors to a download page; no plan table, price or free-plan limit is visible.
Main Development GmbH is named in a 2024 copyright line, and the page gives no licence. GmbH only indicates a company form, so we make no claim about where the firm is based.
What stands out
Bearer token
Automatic TLS
Multiple tunnels
Where it costs you
No plans, prices or free-plan limits appear on the page.
The copyright line is dated 2024 and no licence or country is given.
Right for
Developers wanting access-protected HTTPS URLs from a desktop tool, no plan tables
Wrong for
Budget owners who must forecast a monthly tunnel bill
Not stated by the vendorNo plans, prices or limits shown; one call to action offers a quickstart from the download page
Cloud edge with a rules language, metered above the plan
Ranked #13 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Free: 3 online endpoints, 1 GB transfer, 20k requests and a one-time 5 dollar credit valid for a year. Hobbyist is 10 a month, Pay-as-you-go is 20 a month then 0.10 per GB beyond 5 GB and 1 per 100k requests, plus 5 per extra user.
Enterprise lists SSO/SAML, SCIM and SOC 2 reports without a price. Traffic Policy handles auth, rate limiting, rewrites and TLS termination.
What stands out
Traffic Policy
Metered overage
Kubernetes Operator
Where it costs you
Pay-as-you-go meters data, requests, seats and endpoint hours beyond the included usage.
Owner, parent company and country are not stated, and the terms page returned an error.
Right for
Teams wanting auth, rate limiting and routing rules in front of a dev service
Wrong for
Solo developers wanting a fixed price with no usage meter
Not stated by the vendorFour tiers: Free with a one-time credit, Hobbyist, Pay-as-you-go with metered overage, Enterprise quoted by sales; published monthly prices
Webhook gateway whose CLI also receives events on localhost
Ranked #14 of 14 in Best Localhost Tunneling Tools in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
The Developer tier is 0 per month with 10,000 events, 3-day retention and one team user. Team starts at 39 per month with 7-day retention and unlimited seats, with overage from 3.00 per 100k events and discarded requests billed beyond the allowance.
Growth starts at 499. Claims include SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA and GDPR, and Outpost, an outbound delivery product, can be self-hosted.
What stands out
Event Gateway
Per-event metering
Localhost CLI
Where it costs you
It receives webhook events only, so it cannot expose a general web app or TCP service.
Billing is per event, with extra charges for discarded requests above the allowance.
Right for
Teams debugging inbound webhooks that also need retries and routing in production
Wrong for
Developers wanting to preview a whole web app on a public URL
Not stated by the vendorDeveloper tier always free with an event allowance; Team from a monthly base then per-event overage; Growth and Enterprise tiers above
Localhost tunnelling tools connect a development server behind NAT or a firewall to a public URL or port, so outsiders and webhook senders can reach it without inbound firewall rules. What separates these products is rarely a feature. Work through the steps below.
01
Start with pricing transparency
Only 3 of the 14 print a price; 11 quote per organisation. Comparable without a sales call: Localhost.run, ngrok, Hookdeck.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
3 regions are represented (Elsewhere 12, North America 1, Europe 1). A vendor outside your own legal area is not a problem as such, but it changes who can compel it to hand over data.
Hosted Localhost Tunneling Tools against a relay you run with Inlets, frp or sish
The first decision in this market is who operates the relay. ngrok, Pinggy, LocalXpose and Serveo are hosted services where your traffic crosses their servers. Inlets, frp and sish put the server on a VM you control, which removes plan limits but adds patching, certificates and a bill for the VM. frp is self-hosted only, and even its peer-to-peer mode needs an frps server.
Several vendors straddle both: zrok, Expose and Tunnelmole offer a hosted service and a self-hosted option. Pinggy keeps self-hosting for its Enterprise tier. Count the hours to set up a server before you call a self-hosted tool free, because the licence price is zero while the server and your time are not.
Confirm whether the tool is hosted, self-hosted only, or both, and which tier unlocks self-hosting.
Estimate the monthly cost of the VM, domain and certificate renewal for Inlets, frp or sish.
Check the licence named by the project (MIT for sish, Apache-2.0 for frp and zrok) rather than the marketing line.
Reading ngrok, LocalXpose and Serveo limits before a client demo
Entry tiers in this category are built for short tests, and the limits show up at the worst moment. ngrok caps its free plan at 3 online endpoints, 1 GB of transfer and 20k requests. LocalXpose Starter allows 2 active HTTP/HTTPS tunnels, unstated time limits and an interstitial page. Serveo shows its interstitial on the entry tier too.
Pinggy cuts a tunnel after 60 minutes and Expose Hobby has a time limit. A warning page in front of a client demo looks like a security fault, and a timeout during a webhook test breaks the run. Run your longest realistic session on the entry tier before committing, and write down which limit failed first so the paid comparison starts from evidence.
Time your longest demo or webhook test against the stated tunnel timeout.
Look for an interstitial warning page and whether the paid tier removes it.
Compare the data and request allowance against one day of real test traffic.
Stable addresses: what localhost.run, Pinggy and Expose charge for
A random subdomain that changes on every restart is the main reason people pay. Localhost.run sells a stable .lhr.rocks or custom domain, wildcard subdomains and up to 5 simultaneous tunnels on one plan. Pinggy keeps persistent tunnels and custom or wildcard domains for Pro. Expose adds reserved subdomains, custom domains and a global server network on its per-user yearly Pro plan.
ngrok's Hobbyist tier gives 10 ngrok-branded domains. The difference matters when a payment provider or OAuth app stores your callback URL: a changed address means editing settings in someone else's dashboard each time. Compare how many fixed addresses you need, not only the headline plan price, and check whether the plan lists them as domains, reservations or subdomains.
Count the callback URLs you need to keep fixed across restarts.
Check whether custom domains are allowed on the plan or only branded ones.
Note whether the plan price is per user, per team, per tunnel or metered.
Protocols and access control: Pinggy, Loophole and Hookdeck compared
HTTP is only part of the job. Pinggy and LocalXpose carry TCP, UDP and TLS as well, which matters for databases, game servers and SSH. Access control differs just as much: Pinggy lists Basic auth, bearer tokens and IP whitelisting, Loophole lists Basic Auth and Bearer Token, and ngrok handles auth through its Traffic Policy rules.
Hookdeck sits apart, because its CLI receives webhook events for debugging rather than tunnelling arbitrary traffic. If you only need to receive and inspect a provider's callbacks, that is enough, but it will not show a whole app to a colleague, and its per-event billing counts every request the sender retries. Match the tool to the traffic you actually send before reading any price list.
List the protocols your service speaks before comparing plans.
Decide whether the public URL needs a password, token or IP allow list.
Confirm whether you need webhook routing and delivery, which Hookdeck sells, or a plain pass-through.
What goes wrong most often when buying localhost tunneling tools software
Putting a database or SSH port behind an HTTP-only tool when Pinggy or LocalXpose would carry TCP properly.
Choosing Hookdeck for a web app preview when it receives webhook events rather than general traffic.
Leaving an ngrok Pay-as-you-go account running after a load test and paying for data, requests and endpoint hours.
Saving a random tunnel address as an OAuth callback, then finding it gone after the next restart.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best localhost tunneling tools in 2026?
First of 14 on this page is Inlets. Inlets is a trademark of OpenFaaS Ltd, a registered UK company, and its Pro licence is a flat-rate, unmetered offer.
You run the tunnel server on any cloud VM, and the home page states no rate limits on HTTP and TCP tunnels. No trial is named, only a 30-day pay-and-cancel guarantee, and the VM you provide is yours to patch and pay for.
Which localhost tunneling tools publish their pricing?
3 out of 14 state a price model on their own site:
Localhost.run: Free tier needing no signup, with temporary domains; Custom Domain plan billed annually per month; no download.
ngrok: Four tiers: Free with a one-time credit, Hobbyist, Pay-as-you-go with metered overage, Enterprise quoted by sales; published monthly prices.
Hookdeck: Developer tier always free with an event allowance; Team from a monthly base then per-event overage; Growth and Enterprise tiers above.
The other 11 quote per organisation.
Is there a free localhost tunneling tool?
Localhost.run, ngrok, Hookdeck come with a no-cost entry point, a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Where are these localhost tunneling tool vendors established?
Vendor countries on this page, Elsewhere 12, North America 1, Europe 1:
Inlets: United Kingdom.
sish: Not stated by the vendor.
Pinggy: Not stated by the vendor.
zrok: Not stated by the vendor.
frp: Not stated by the vendor.
Expose: Not stated by the vendor.
Localhost.run: Not stated by the vendor.
LocalXpose: United States.
Serveo: Not stated by the vendor.
localtunnel: Not stated by the vendor.
Tunnelmole: Not stated by the vendor.
Loophole: Not stated by the vendor.
ngrok: Not stated by the vendor.
Hookdeck: Not stated by the vendor.
Which localhost tunneling tools can you host yourself?
Second is sish, which suits Individual developers who already live in SSH and want a private endpoint. Third is Pinggy, which suits Developers testing non-HTTP services such as UDP or raw TCP from a laptop.
Who should not buy Inlets?
Anyone expecting a zero-cost throwaway tunnel for an afternoon. No trial is named; the 30-day pay-and-cancel guarantee is the only safety net..
This list covers 14 localhost tunneling tools products. A product we left out can be put to us by its maker, with a short note on its purpose and its customers; we decide on inclusion ourselves. The rules are under software advice.
