Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

ngrok VS Pinggy.io

Compare ngrok VS Pinggy.io and see what are their differences

ngrok logo ngrok

ngrok enables secure introspectable tunnels to localhost webhook development tool and debugging tool.

Pinggy.io logo Pinggy.io

Public URLs for localhost without downloading any binary
  • ngrok Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-22
  • Pinggy.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-15
  • Pinggy.io
    Image date //
    2025-01-22
  • Pinggy.io
    Image date //
    2025-01-22
  • Pinggy.io
    Image date //
    2025-01-22
  • Pinggy.io
    Image date //
    2025-01-22
  • Pinggy.io
    Image date //
    2025-01-22

Pinggy stands out as the simplest localhost tunneling solution. With Pinggy, you can effortlessly create HTTP, TCP, UDP, or TLS tunnels to your localhost, enabling instant access to your websites or applications, even behind firewalls and NATs. No need to download anything, no complex server configurations - just streamlined, secure access for developers, teams, and innovators. Whether youโ€™re sharing an app for testing or showcasing your work remotely, Pinggy makes it intuitive and stress-free.

ngrok

Website
ngrok.com
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

Pinggy.io

Website
pinggy.io
$ Details
freemium $2.5 / Monthly (Pro, 1 tunnel, HTTP, TCP, and TLS tunnel, Custom Domain)
Platforms
Mac OSX Linux Windows Android BSD
Release Date
2023 January
Startup details
Country
India
State
West Bengal
City
Bolpur
Employees
1 - 9

ngrok features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    ngrok simplifies the process of creating secure public URLs to your local web server. It eliminates complex network configurations and is user-friendly even for beginners.
  • Security
    ngrok tunnels are secured with HTTPS, offering a robust way to expose services without compromising security. It supports multiple authentication methods, ensuring a secure connection.
  • Speed of Setup
    Setting up ngrok is quick. You just need to download the executable and run a simple command to get started. This makes it ideal for rapid development and testing.
  • Flexibility
    ngrok supports multiple protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, and TCP, making it versatile for various types of services.
  • Monitoring
    ngrok provides a web interface for monitoring HTTP traffic flowing through the tunnels, which helps in debugging and analytics.
  • Built-in Authentication
    It includes built-in authentication options, enabling you to create protected tunnels easily without needing to configure your web server.
  • Secure Tunneling
    ngrok offers end-to-end encryption, ensuring that data transferred over the tunnel is secure and private.
  • Portability
    The tool is highly portable. It works across various platforms including Windows, macOS, and Linux without requiring complex configurations.
  • Integration
    ngrok supports integrations with various tools and platforms such as Slack, ACI, and AWS, making it easier to use in CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure.
  • Inspection and Debugging
    It provides inspection features through a web interface to view requests coming through the tunnel, aiding in debugging.

Possible disadvantages of ngrok

  • Pricing
    While ngrok offers a free tier, many advanced features such as custom subdomains, reserved domains, and additional security features require a paid subscription.
  • Latency
    Because your data is routed through an external server, there can be a noticeable increase in latency, which might affect performance especially for real-time applications.
  • Temporary URLs
    The URLs provided in the free tier are temporary and change every time you restart ngrok. This can be inconvenient for long-term use or sharing links.
  • Rate Limits
    The free version has rate limits on the amount of traffic that can be tunneled, which could be restrictive for high-traffic applications.
  • Dependency
    Using ngrok creates a dependency on an external service, which means your tunnels are subject to ngrokโ€™s availability and reliability. Any downtime on ngrok's end can affect your service.
  • Limited Customization
    The free tier offers limited customization options. More advanced customization requires subscription to a paid plan.
  • Usage Limits
    The free tier of ngrok has limitations in terms of concurrent connections and session lengths, which may not suffice for larger projects.
  • Security Risks
    Despite its encryption, exposing local servers to the internet always carries potential security risks, if not managed properly.

Pinggy.io features and specs

  • HTTP(s) Tunnels
  • TCP and TLS Tunnels
  • Custom Domains
  • Live Header Manipulation
  • Web Debugger
  • Terminal UI

Analysis of Pinggy.io

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Pinggy.io is well-regarded for its intuitive interface and effective support for development and testing workflows. It simplifies complex tasks, saving developers time and effort, making it a good choice for both individual developers and teams.

Why this product is good

  • Pinggy.io is a platform that provides tools and services to streamline API management and testing. It allows developers to easily expose their local server to the public web, making it simpler to test and debug their applications. The service is praised for its ease of use, reliability, and comprehensive feature set including secure tunnels and domain management options.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking to quickly expose local servers to the public internet
  • Teams needing a reliable and secure API management tool
  • Anyone looking to simplify the testing and debugging of APIs

ngrok videos

EQUIP | The making of ngrok - Alan Shreve (ngrok)

More videos:

  • Review - Termux no ngrok link appearing in blackeye fix
  • Tutorial - How to use LPB Software + Easy Ngrok Setup
  • Tutorial - ngrok tutorial -Access your localhost Wordpress theme from anywhere of the world without hosting
  • Review - spynote x loclx

Pinggy.io videos

Pinggy Demo

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to ngrok and Pinggy.io)
Testing
80 80%
20% 20
Localhost Tools
67 67%
33% 33
Webhooks
69 69%
31% 31
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing ngrok and Pinggy.io.

What makes your product unique?

Pinggy.io's answer:

No need to install any binary. One command creates a HTTP / TCP / TLS tunnel to localhost. Works in windows / mac / linux.

User comments

Share your experience with using ngrok and Pinggy.io. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare ngrok and Pinggy.io

ngrok Reviews

Localtonet | Best Ngrok Alternatives
Exposing local web services to the internet is essential for web developers, but it can be a bit challenging. Ngrok has been the most popular tool for this job, but it's not the only option out there. In this article, we'll explore some of the best ngrok alternatives
Source: localtonet.com
Best ngrok alternatives for localhost tunnels
ngrok provides tunnels for ingress through its programmable network edge. Additionally, it offers observability as well as the ability to change traffic parameters such as headers on the go to your apps with no code changes. In order to use ngrok you must download the ngrok client and sign up to get an account.
Source: pinggy.io
7 Ngrok Alternatives & Competitors for App Tunneling, Free & Paid
For example, letโ€™s say you have a web project on your machine written in Python using the Django framework. Your local server will probably run on an URL like http://localhost:8000 โ€• which is only accessible on your local machine. With a service like Ngrok, you can configure a public URL like https://myapp.ngrok.io in a single command line and have all the traffic from this...
Source: onboardbase.com
Tools for Testing Webhooks
As it supports cross-platforms, download the suitable binary for OS. For Windows, there is only one binary, ngrok.exe. Copy this to the C:\ngrok folder (or wherever preferred) and enter the command below: [code lang=text] ngrok http 7071 -host-header=localhost [/code]
Top 4 BEST Ngrok Alternatives In 2021: Review And Comparison
NgrokUser is required to sign up in order to generate auth token.Supports all 3 protocols.Usage is through ngrok executable (or through node js based library).Offers both free and paid version. Free version has limited but rich functionalities.Subdomains are supported in the paid version.

Pinggy.io Reviews


Best ngrok alternatives for localhost tunnels
Pinggy.io is a tunneling tool that gives a public address to access your localhost, even while sitting behind a NAT or a firewall โ€“ all this in a single command. Without downloading anything, the pinggy command gives users access to your website / app hosted in localhost without configuring the cloud, or any port forwarding, or DNS, or VPN.
Source: pinggy.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, ngrok should be more popular than Pinggy.io. It has been mentiond 429 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

ngrok mentions (429)

  • Vibecoding Our First MCP Server
    Build it, run it, and expose it with ngrok for remote access:. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to sync large amounts of contacts from the HubSpot API
    Local testing tip: To inspect webhooks during development, run ngrok against your local backend and set the ngrok URL as the webhook target in Nango's environment settings. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Webhooks for Country Data Changes โ€” Get Notified When ISO Codes Update
    Use ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel to expose your localhost endpoint, register that URL as the webhook target, and trigger test events from the dashboard's "Send test event" button. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Why Synchronous Webhook Processing Is a Production Trap
    Testing the full async flow end-to-end during development is important. Unit tests verify the processing logic in isolation, but they can't replicate the sender's retry timing or the behavior of the real queue consumer. Ngrok exposes your local receiver to the actual external sender so you can exercise the complete path including signature verification, queue writes, and worker consumption under realistic delivery... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Step-by-Step Webhook Signature Verification for Any Sender
    Use Postman to send test requests with custom signature headers to a running server. Ngrok lets you test against a real external sender during development. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

Pinggy.io mentions (152)

  • Understanding Your Local AI Playground: A Look at Port 3080 and LibreChat
    One of the great things about running a local AI interface is that you can collaborate with others. You might want a teammate to test a new prompt or see how a model responds to certain questions. There is a handy tool called Pinggy that creates a secure tunnel to your local machine. Once you run the command below, Pinggy gives you a public URL that points directly to your localhost:3080. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Control Claude Code and Other AI Coding Agents from Your Phone
    Pinggy generates a public HTTPS link that forwards traffic to your local server. Open that link on your phone to access the full dashboard remotely. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Never Buy A .online Domain
    We posted this warning on HN before: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40195410 urls. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Top 10 Cloudflare Tunnel Alternatives in 2026: A Practical Guide for Developers
    Pinggy is built for developers who just want a tunnel that works without unnecessary setup pain. Itโ€™s lightweight, terminal-friendly, and especially handy when you need to share an app fast. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Self-Hosting Node-RED: Build Local Automations and Access Them Anywhere
    Using Node-RED Dashboard nodes, you can build UI panels and access them via the Pinggy link. This is perfect for demos, internal tools, or remote monitoring. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing ngrok and Pinggy.io, you can also consider the following products

TailScale - Private networks made easy Connect all your devices using WireGuard, without the hassle. Tailscale makes it as easy as installing an app and signing in.

zrok - Next-generation sharing platform built on top of OpenZiti

Pagekite - Bring your localhost servers on-line.

LocalXpose - Your network without the IT work. Radically simple, always-on tunneling service for mission-critical applications.

localhost.run - Instantly share your localhost environment!

Vercel - Vercel is the platform for frontend developers, providing the speed and reliability innovators need to create at the moment of inspiration.