Localport vs ngrok
ngrok is an API gateway and tunnel service billed by seats and usage. Localport is tunnels plus mutual TLS access to remote devices, at one flat price per team, with static URLs, custom domains and TLS passthrough on every plan.
A team of 25 pays $130 a month on ngrok before usage, and $24 on Localport.
Last checked 16 October 2026
What ngrok is
ngrok is developer infrastructure that routes and secures traffic to apps, APIs and AI models. Its products are a gateway, an AI gateway and localhost sharing, billed as included usage and then by what you use.
- Traffic Policy at the gateway
- Traffic Inspector with request replay
- A plan at no cost
What Localport is
Localport gives a local service a static public URL over HTTP, TCP or TLS. Remote Access gives your team mutual TLS access to deployed devices, granted per device and logged. Each plan is one flat price for the team.
- Static URLs, custom domains and TLS passthrough on every plan
- Remote Access over mutual TLS, by member, role or machine
- Team members included in the price
What ngrok does well.
Localport does not replay requests, run gateway policy or sign visitors in through an identity provider, and has no free plan.
- Gateway policy
- Rate limits, JWT validation and header rewrites before a request reaches your app.
- Request replay
- Inspect each request and send it again from the browser, edited if needed.
- Identity-provider sign-in
- OAuth, SAML and OIDC at the edge through Traffic Policy.
- More webhook providers
- ngrok verifies webhooks from a long list of providers. Localport verifies GitHub, Stripe, Shopify, Slack and any HMAC-SHA256 header.
- Load balancing
- Endpoints that share a URL share its traffic.
- A plan at no cost
- 1 GB and 20,000 HTTP requests a month.
What Localport does better.
- Static URLs on every plan
- Every HTTP tunnel keeps its URL across restarts, on a subdomain you choose. A TCP tunnel keeps its host, and a reserved port fixes the full address: 2 on Hobby, 10 on Pro, 50 on Business.
- Remote Access over mutual TLS
- Each person, server or CI job holds its own certificate, and a grant names the devices it reaches. Included in Pro. ngrok Device Gateway bills per endpoint hour.
- One price for the team
- Pro includes 50 members. ngrok includes 3, then $5 a user.
- No usage meter
- No charge per endpoint hour, per TCP connection or per policy action.
- Custom domains on every plan
- Wildcards included, with certificates issued and renewed for you. ngrok custom domains start at Pay-as-you-go, at $0.01 per active hour.
- TLS passthrough on every plan
- The edge routes by SNI and never decrypts, so your service keeps its own certificate. ngrok TLS endpoints start at Pay-as-you-go.
- Agent IP allowlist included
- Network IPs limits the addresses a tunnel's agent can connect from. ngrok account-wide IP restrictions are a $15 per user add-on that requires SSO.
- Audit log included
- 90 days on Pro, 365 on Business. ngrok audit logs need SSO at $10 and governance at $15, per user.
- Data residency per tunnel
- EU, US or Asia Pacific, chosen per tunnel at no charge. ngrok lists region pinning at $0.02 an hour.
- Fanout
- Every connected machine receives a copy of each request, so a team shares one webhook URL. ngrok endpoint pooling load-balances each request to one endpoint.
What it costs
Both billed month to month.
| ngrok / month | Localport / month | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| A team of 10 developers ngrok Pay-as-you-go: $20 with 3 users, then 7 users at $5 | $55 | $24 on Pro | 2.3x less |
| A team of 25 developers ngrok Pay-as-you-go: $20 with 3 users, then 22 users at $5 | $130 | $24 on Pro | 5.4x less |
| A team of 50 developers ngrok Pay-as-you-go: $20 with 3 users, then 47 users at $5 | $255 | $24 on Pro | 10.6x less |
| 3 services online all month on your own domains, 50 GB ngrok Pay-as-you-go: 2,190 endpoint hours at $0.02, 2,190 domain hours at $0.01, 45 GB at $0.10 | $70 | $24 on Pro | 2.9x less |
| One developer ngrok Hobbyist: 1 user, 5 GB. Localport Hobby: 5 members, 20 GB, a custom domain | $10 | $6 on Hobby | 1.7x less |
ngrok seat figures exclude usage, which is billed on top. The services row assumes traffic in every hour. Localport Pro is $20 a month billed yearly and covers up to 50 members and 150 GB.
Side by side
| ngrok | Localport | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Monthly credit, then seats and usage | One flat price per team |
| Team members | 1 on Hobbyist, 3 on Pay-as-you-go, then $5 per user | 5 on Hobby, 50 on Pro, 100 on Business |
| Data transfer | 5 GB, then $0.10 per GB | 20 GB, 150 GB or 1 TB a month |
| Endpoint fees | $0.02 per active endpoint hour | None |
| Static HTTP URL | 1 development domain per account | Every tunnel, on a subdomain you choose |
| Reserved TCP address | 1 on Hobbyist, 100 on Pay-as-you-go | 2, 10 or 50 by plan |
| Custom domains | Pay-as-you-go, $0.01 per active hour | Every plan, wildcards included |
| TLS passthrough | Pay-as-you-go | Every plan |
| TCP and TLS connections | 5,000 a month, then $2 per 100,000 | No per-connection charge |
| Agent IP allowlist | Account-wide IP restrictions, a $15 per user add-on with SSO | Network IPs, every plan |
| Several agents on one URL | Endpoint pooling: each request goes to one agent | Fanout: each agent receives every request |
| Audit log | Add-ons: SSO at $10 and governance at $15, per user | 90 days on Pro, 365 on Business, included |
| Data residency | Region pinning at $0.02 an hour | Chosen per tunnel, included |
| Remote device access | Device Gateway, $0.02 per active endpoint hour or a sales contract | Remote Access over mutual TLS, included in Pro |
How Localport handles your data.
- Open-source agent
- The program on your machine is Apache 2.0. Read it before you run it.
- Traffic content is not logged
- Request and response bodies are not stored.
- A region for each tunnel
- EU, US or Asia Pacific. Account data is stored in the EU.
- Your keys stay with you
- Private keys for Remote Access are created on your machine and not sent to us.
Common questions.
ngrok details are from ngrok pricing, ngrok Device Gateway, ngrok Traffic Policy, ngrok webhook verification, ngrok endpoint pooling as published on 16 October 2026.
How much cheaper is Localport than ngrok for a team?
For 10 developers, ngrok Pay-as-you-go is $55 a month in seats before usage, and Localport Pro is $24 a month. For 50 developers it is $255 against $24.
Does Localport have static domains like ngrok?
Yes, on every plan. Each HTTP tunnel keeps its URL across restarts on a subdomain you choose, and you can attach your own domain. A TCP tunnel keeps its host, and reserving the port keeps the full address.
Does Localport support TLS passthrough?
Yes, on every plan. A TLS tunnel is routed by SNI and the edge never decrypts it, so your service presents its own certificate. On ngrok, TLS endpoints start at Pay-as-you-go.
Can Localport replace ngrok Device Gateway?
Yes, for reaching ports on remote devices. Remote Access uses mutual TLS with a certificate per person, server or CI job, and is included in Pro instead of billed per endpoint hour.
Is Localport a free ngrok alternative?
No. Localport has no free plan. Every plan starts with a trial, and Hobby is $6 a month.
Is Localport open source?
The Localport agent, the program that runs on your machine, is open source under Apache 2.0. The service is hosted by Localport.