Top 9 ngrok Alternatives in 2026 (Compared for Webhooks and Local Tunnels)
The best ngrok alternatives in 2026, compared: Cloudflare Tunnel, Tailscale Funnel, Webhook Relay, Hookdeck CLI, smee.io, localtunnel, Pinggy, zrok and provider CLIs — with a verdict for each and a table.
The best ngrok alternative depends on the job. For exposing a full local app on a public hostname, Cloudflare Tunnel is the strongest free option. For receiving webhooks on localhost, on a private server or across a whole team, Webhook Relay is the purpose-built choice: a permanent URL, events stored and retried while you are offline, and every connected developer receiving the same events. For a private link between your own devices, Tailscale. For a throwaway URL with no account, localtunnel or Pinggy. This guide compares nine tools with a verdict for each, as of September 2026.
TL;DR: the nine alternatives and who each is for
| Tool | Best for | Free tier | Stable URL | Webhooks stored while offline | Team broadcast | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Webhook Relay | Receiving webhooks on localhost, private servers, CI and teams | Yes, permanent URL | Yes, every plan | Yes, retries up to 30 days | Yes | Agent and operator on GitHub |
| Cloudflare Tunnel | Exposing a full app or service on your own domain | Yes | Yes with a Cloudflare domain; quick tunnels are temporary | No | No | Client (cloudflared) |
| Tailscale Funnel | Sharing a service privately with your own devices, or publicly on ts.net | Personal use | Yes (ts.net hostname) | No | No | Client |
| Hookdeck CLI | Local webhook development with Hookdeck's console | Yes | Yes (Hookdeck source URL) | Yes (queue) | Multiple connections | CLI |
| smee.io | GitHub-style webhook proxy for quick local testing | Yes | Yes (channel URL) | No | Yes (broadcast) | Yes |
| localtunnel | A throwaway public URL with no account | Yes | Random subdomain | No | No | Yes |
| Pinggy | SSH-based instant tunnel, no install | Time-limited | Paid | No | No | No |
| zrok | Self-hostable open-source sharing (OpenZiti) | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Provider CLIs (Stripe, GitHub) | Testing one provider's webhooks locally | Yes | n/a | No | No | Yes |
Free-tier details reflect the vendors' public documentation in September 2026 and change often; check current pricing pages before deciding.
1. Webhook Relay: best for webhooks, private servers and teams
ngrok exposes a port. Webhook Relay delivers webhooks: a provider posts to a permanent public URL, and a small agent that connects outbound from your laptop, on-prem server, CI runner or Kubernetes cluster receives the request. Nothing on your side is exposed.
relay forward --bucket my-app http://localhost:3000/webhooks
- The URL never changes. Set it once in Stripe, GitHub, Shopify or Twilio and forget it, on every plan including free.
- Events wait for you. Close the laptop, redeploy, reboot: requests are stored and, with durable retries, retried for up to 30 days, or replayed automatically when the agent reconnects.
- The whole team gets the same events. Any number of agents can subscribe to one bucket; every one receives every webhook. No one owns "the" tunnel.
- Do things to the webhook in flight. Filter, transform with a JavaScript function, fan out to several destinations, verify signatures, and read every delivery in the logs.
- Also a tunnel when you need one. Webhook Relay tunnels expose a full web or TCP service on a stable HTTPS hostname.
Verdict: pick it when the work is webhooks, especially for a team or a private network. Pick something else for exposing an arbitrary app to the public. Free plan: 150 webhooks/month; paid from $9.99/month. Start with the no-signup Webhook Bin to inspect payloads, then install the agent. Full comparison: ngrok vs Webhook Relay.
2. Cloudflare Tunnel: best free general-purpose tunnel
cloudflared opens an outbound connection to Cloudflare's edge and publishes a local service. Quick tunnels need no account:
cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000
You get a temporary trycloudflare.com hostname. With a domain on Cloudflare you can create named tunnels with stable hostnames for free, add Cloudflare Access in front, and run it as a service.
Verdict: the best replacement for ngrok's core job (expose an app) if you already use Cloudflare or own a domain there. Not a webhook tool: nothing is stored if your machine is offline, and one hostname maps to one origin.
3. Tailscale Funnel: best for sharing privately with your own devices
Tailscale creates a private WireGuard network between your devices; tailscale serve shares a local port with that network and tailscale funnel publishes it to the internet on a *.ts.net hostname.
tailscale funnel 3000
Verdict: excellent when the people who need access are on your tailnet, and a reasonable public option for personal projects. It requires Tailscale on the machine, offers no request inspector, and has the same offline problem as any tunnel.
4. Hookdeck CLI: best if you want Hookdeck's console for local development
Hookdeck's CLI connects a local port to a Hookdeck source, so events go through their queue and console before reaching localhost:
hookdeck listen 3000 my-source
Verdict: a good local development tool with a free tier and a polished event console. Delivery in production is to public endpoints only, so it does not cover private or on-prem servers the way a relay agent does. See the Hookdeck alternative comparison.
5. smee.io: best for quick GitHub webhook testing
smee.io is the webhook proxy GitHub's own documentation uses for local development. Create a channel, point GitHub at it, and run the client:
npx smee-client --url https://smee.io/your-channel --target http://localhost:3000/events
Verdict: free, open source and simple, and several clients can listen to one channel. It stores nothing, retries nothing, and has no authentication, so it is a test tool rather than something to run a team or a server on. See smee.io alternative.
6. localtunnel: best for a throwaway URL with zero setup
npx localtunnel --port 3000
Verdict: no account, open source, and you get a random public URL in seconds. Reliability and the interstitial warning page make it unsuitable for anything beyond a one-off test. See localtunnel alternative.
7. Pinggy: best when you can't install anything
Pinggy works over plain SSH, so it runs anywhere with an SSH client:
ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:3000 a.pinggy.io
Verdict: handy on locked-down machines. Free tunnels are time-limited and stable hostnames are paid.
8. zrok: best open-source, self-hostable option
zrok is built on OpenZiti and can share a local service publicly or privately, with a hosted free tier and the option to self-host the whole thing.
zrok share public localhost:3000
Verdict: the strongest choice if "open source and self-hosted" is the requirement. Expect more setup than the hosted tools.
9. Provider CLIs (Stripe CLI, GitHub CLI): best for one provider's test events
If you only need one provider's webhooks on localhost, its own CLI is the shortest path. Stripe:
stripe listen --forward-to localhost:4242/webhook
Verdict: unbeatable for that single provider during development, including test-event triggers and signing-secret handling. It stops being enough when several providers post to one endpoint, when a teammate or a staging server needs the same events, or when the receiver is a server rather than a laptop. See Stripe CLI alternative.
ngrok vs Webhook Relay for webhooks
| ngrok (free) | Webhook Relay (free) | |
|---|---|---|
| Stable URL | One static development domain; more are paid | Permanent URL per bucket, every plan |
| Session limits | Yes on free tunnels | None |
| Share one endpoint across a team | No, one tunnel per process | Yes, every agent gets every event |
| Works while your machine is offline | No | Yes, stored and retried for up to 30 days |
| Inspect requests | Web inspector | Dashboard logs and the no-signup Webhook Bin |
| Deliver into a private network or Kubernetes | Agent per host | Agent and Kubernetes operator |
| Transform or filter payloads in flight | Limited traffic policy | JavaScript/Lua functions, rules |
| Fan-out to multiple destinations | No | Yes |
| Raw TCP / SSH tunnels | Yes | Yes (tunnels) |
| Starting paid price | From about $8/month | $9.99/month |
Where ngrok still wins
ngrok is a good product. Keep it for ad-hoc TCP or SSH tunnels, its traffic inspector with replay, and its API-gateway features if you are already paying for them. The alternatives above win on price, on open source, or, in Webhook Relay's case, on the specific job of receiving webhooks reliably.
How to switch from ngrok in two minutes
- Inspect first, no install: open Webhook Bin, copy the URL, point your provider at it and watch requests arrive.
- Forward to localhost: create a free account, install the agent and run
relay forward --bucket my-app http://localhost:3000/webhooks. - Share with the team: each teammate runs the same command against the same bucket.
- Keep the URL forever: the endpoint does not change, so the provider is configured once.
Step-by-step commands are in receive webhooks on localhost. For the broader question of which approach to use when, see how to receive webhooks on localhost: 5 ways compared.
