ngrok
ngrok: A broad reverse proxy platform for managed tunnels, APIs, and secure ingress. Ranked #8 of 33 in Reverse Proxy Software by our editors (8.2/10); pricing: Free plan; best for managed tunnels, APIs, and secure ingress.
At a glance
- Editor score8.2 / 10
- PricingFree plan
- Best forManaged tunnels, APIs, and secure ingress
- Free planYes
- Paid from$10/mo
- Deployment modelBoth
- Founded2015 · San Francisco, California, United States
- Facts checked20 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Secure tunnels connect local or private services to public endpoints
- Traffic policies support authentication, forwarding, and rate limiting
- WAF rules, TLS termination, inspection, and global load balancing included
Where it doesn't
- Free plan limits endpoints, transfer, requests, and team membership
- Pay-as-you-go adds usage charges beyond its included allowances
- Enterprise pricing uses per-device and per-customer pricing
Our verdict on ngrok
ngrok is developer infrastructure for exposing, routing, and securing applications, APIs, services, and AI models. It connects local or private services to managed public endpoints through agents, APIs, SDKs, or Kubernetes integrations. The platform suits individual developers, teams, and enterprises handling development, preview, production, device, or customer-network workloads, with web, Windows, macOS, API, and self-hosted options.
Its reverse proxy scope extends beyond tunneling. ngrok provides TLS termination at its edge, API and universal gateway traffic routing, Traffic Policy rules for forwarding, authentication, and rate limiting, and OWASP CRS web application firewall rules. It also supports WebSocket-to-TCP conversion, global load balancing across points of presence, traffic inspection, event logging, webhook verification, and replay workflows. Kubernetes ingress and controller integrations, plus connections for services such as Auth0, AWS CloudWatch, Datadog, GitHub, Google, Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Slack, and Terraform Cloud, broaden its platform fit.
The published plans create a clear progression. Free includes up to 3 online endpoints, 1GB of data transfer, up to 20k HTTP/S requests, and 1 team member. Hobbyist costs $10 per month and includes 3 online endpoints, 5GB of data transfer, 100k HTTP/S requests, and 1 team member. Pay-as-you-go costs $20 per month plus usage, with unlimited endpoints, data transfer, HTTP/S requests, and team members, alongside included allowances and optional SSO & RBAC and SCIM add-ons. Enterprise adds SSO/SAML, SCIM, dedicated support SLAs, security reviews, and HIPAA, SOC 2, and BAAs. Choose ngrok when ingress control and security features matter together; simpler tunnel needs may fit the Free or Hobbyist plans better.
Your product? Our editors can test ngrok in depth and publish a review, labelled as paid · from $149/mo →
ngrok pricing
All 4 ngrok plans and prices →
ngrok fact sheet
| Free plan | Yes |
|---|---|
| Paid from | $10/mo |
| Deployment model | Both |
| TLS termination | Yes |
| Web application firewall | Yes |
| Response caching | Not verified |
| Configuration method | Both |
| WebSocket support | Yes |
| Rate limiting | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud, Self-hosted |
| Platforms | Web, Windows, macOS |
| Compliance & security | SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, SSO/SAML |
| Support | Email, Tickets, Docs |
| Built for | Solo, Small business, Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 17 integrations: Auth0, AWS CloudWatch, Datadog, GitHub, Google, Kubernetes … See all → |
| Pricing | Free plan (source) |
| Website | ngrok.com |
| Facts checked | 20 Sep 2026 |
ngrok integrations
ngrok lists 17 integrations on its own site.
- Auth0
- AWS CloudWatch
- Datadog
- GitHub
- Kubernetes
- Microsoft Entra ID
- MongoDB
- MySQL
- NGINX
- Okta
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- Slack
- Terraform Cloud
- WebSockets
- Zoom
Alternatives to ngrok
- NGINXA flexible self-hosted reverse proxy with caching, load balancing, TLS, and protocol support.9.3
- HAProxy Community EditionA capable reverse proxy for teams managing high-volume TCP and HTTP traffic themselves.9.1
- Cloudflare TunnelA free outbound tunnel for publishing private services through Cloudflare’s edge.8.9
ngrok vs the competition
- ngrok vs NGINX
- ngrok vs HAProxy Community Edition
- ngrok vs Cloudflare Tunnel
- ngrok vs Traefik Proxy
- ngrok vs Nginx Proxy Manager
- ngrok vs Apache Traffic Server
Compare ngrok with any tool side by side →
Also Ranked In
ngrok is ranked in 2 of our directories.
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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