Few months back we had a nice pagekite.net - fast and reliable localhost tunneling solution post by Swapnil.I am extending it further.

Pagekite and localtunnel both the solutions are really good. However both has some drawback or limitations.
e.g.

  • For Pagekite you should have an account on Pagekite site and that login will last only upto 30 days or so. However most of the time you do not need Public sharing of the app all the time

  • For localtunnel the only drawback is change of url every time you start it. However in practical scenarios some times it is annoying as every time you start it you have to either pass the url to others or change it in configurations multiple times.

In one of my project I had to restart my app multiple times, also I could not afford waste of time by changing my configuration all the time. On the other hand Pagekite trial period ended at the same time :)

So I started searching for a solution which helps in saving my time and also where I need not to buy for my testing purpose.

I came across a nice solution - i.e. ngrok

Ngrok's Benefits:

  1. When you start it, it will give a unique url and that will be valid for one day!! So it saved my time as I do not have to change it on every restart

  2. Another advantage you can use the service without any sign-uJust download and install. There you go. Also it is available to everyone. If extra features needed you can buy

  3. One more advantage is, it provides url with both http protocols (http and https)

Steps to install ngrok

  • Download ngrok
  • Unzip - unzip /path/to/ngrok.zip
  • Change directory where you have extracted it then run
    ./ngrok app_port_number

Click to read more about ngrok Features