# ngrok Reviews
**Vendor:** ngrok  
**Category:** [Network Management Tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/network-management-tools)  
**Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0  
**Total Reviews:** 13
## About ngrok
One gateway for all your traffic. ngrok replaces your networking hodgepodge—reverse proxies, load balancers, VPNs, auth layers, model routers, and the rest of the kludge—with one cloud networking platform. Secure, transform, and route traffic to services running anywhere. localhost to prod, APIs to AI models, and much more, already built by millions of developers and trusted by teams at Twilio, GitHub, Okta, Microsoft, Zoom, and Databricks.



## ngrok Pros & Cons
**What users like:**

- Users find ngrok&#39;s service to be **easy to set up** , enhancing their overall experience despite other drawbacks. (1 reviews)
- Users find ngrok&#39;s service to be good and appreciate the **easy setup** process, despite some support concerns. (1 reviews)
- Users find ngrok&#39;s **setup ease** impressive, allowing for quick integration and use of the service. (1 reviews)
- Users find ngrok&#39;s service to be **easy to set up** , enhancing their productivity without complications. (1 reviews)

**What users dislike:**

- Users experience **delayed support** with ngrok, facing unhelpful responses and a lack of urgency in assistance. (1 reviews)
- Users express frustration over ngrok&#39;s **expensive and convoluted pricing** , coupled with poor customer service and lack of transparency. (1 reviews)
- Users are frustrated by the **hidden costs** due to convoluted pricing and ineffective customer service that lacks urgency. (1 reviews)
- Users criticize ngrok for its **high licensing costs** , facing convoluted pricing and inadequate customer support when issues arise. (1 reviews)
- Users experience **poor customer support** with ngrok, facing unhelpful responses and a lack of urgency in assistance. (1 reviews)

## ngrok Reviews
  ### 1. Effortless Local Development Exposure

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Azam H. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** May 04, 2026

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

I use ngrok to expose my local apps to the internet for testing, sharing, and handling webhooks without deploying them. Ngrok solves the problem of accessing my local development environment from the internet. It lets me test APIs, webhooks, or share my app with others instantly without deploying it to a live server. What I like most about ngrok is its simplicity and speed; it instantly gives a secure public URL for my local app so I can test and share it without any complicated setup or deployment. I value how its key features make development fast and efficient. The ability to generate an instant public URL allows me to quickly share or test my local app without deployment. The webhook support helps me handle real-time responses from external services without deploying the app, and the request inspector allows me to easily monitor and debug incoming traffic. These features save time and make the whole workflow much smoother.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

Ngrok could be improved with stable URLs in the free plan, better connection reliability, and fewer restrictions on advanced features. It can also feel limited for long-term use since sessions expire quickly, and managing multiple tunnels isn't very smooth. Adding more flexibility and reducing dependencies on upgrades would make it more convenient for developers.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I use ngrok to access my local development from the internet, allowing me to test and share apps without deploying them. It gives a secure public URL quickly, letting me handle webhooks and debug easily, which saves time and streamlines development.

  ### 2. Easy to Implement, and the Free Plan Covers Everything I Need

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Julian R. | Co-founder / Service Delivery Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 28, 2026

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

It’s easy to implement, and the free plan lets me do everything I need at the moment.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

At this moment, I feel the software covers everything I need, so there’s really nothing I don’t like about it.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

It lets me run services on my own PC and share the information with my colleagues, without needing extra, complicated systems just to share those services.

  ### 3. Good service, HORRIBLE customer service (LLMs basically), not transparent pricing

**Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Minas S. | CTO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 12, 2025

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

The actual service is good and easy to set up. The not transparent pricing policy and completely unacceptable support kills the product.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

The pricing mechanism is convoluted and not transparent at all.
What makes things worse is that when you eventually find out (always the hard way, without a warning beforehand) that you need to purchase an additional feature your new feature will be activated at the NEXT INVOICE cycle (i.e. next month). Just imagine having a client demo next day, for example...
The customer service is a true disgrace. I actually tend to believe that there is no human involved. Their replies are misleading (but always towards the direction of "buy the next subscription level and your problem will be solved" - surprise, surprise it then turns out that did not solve the issue), they do not seem to have the right context (they do not know their own pricing mechanism) and they do not seem to take into account urgency at all.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Using it for quickly sharing prototypes with other teams and hosting demos with clients

  ### 4. Great Tool For Local Hosting

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** RAJU K. | Senior Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 10, 2023

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Great tool for local hosts and can be used from anywhere. we can make our local pc like a host without any cloud services.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

nothing. everything is working perfectly.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Local Hosting
Networking

  ### 5. Best solution for POC

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Outsourcing/Offshoring | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** April 14, 2023

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Ability to quickly tunnel local host to the internet allows for easy showcase of different proof of concepts

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

The support for routing to custom domains is very complex

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Sometimes we are not sure if a solution is viable or not. So, we have to make proof of concepts for it that needed to be deployed on cloud solutions or we had to do complex network management for exposing ports, ngrok eases this in one line.

  ### 6. Makes local development easy

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Lee R. | Co-Founder, Senior Product Developer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** June 14, 2022

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Been using Ngrok for around 4-5 years now. The set-up is so easy, that makes for a quick tool to use, with very little thought, when remote access is needed for either reviewing or for 3rd party webhooks, etc.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

Sometimes things do go wrong, and when they go wrong, they're quite hard to debug. Also, it seems that if you are serving a full web page, there can be time-outs if there are too many requests, even with a paid plan. However, this is definitely in the 1% of the time

**Recommendations to others considering ngrok:**

My recommendation would be to set up a config file from the get-go. It's not hard, but it makes setting up tunnels much much easier

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

When developing payment gateways, we needed a system that we have local webhooks for payment responses. This tool solved issue and gave us this ability with very little effort

  ### 7. [AVOID] No support and the you cannot remove credit card or cancel subscriptions on your own

**Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Gerald C. | Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2022

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

free version is okay, quick and easy to use, but of course, you are limited with the bandwidth and the ugly URLs.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

they have a predatory system. this is one of those companies where you cannot remove a credit card or cancel a susbscription even 2 hours after signing up. i signed up thinking custom domains would work, but it didn't. within 2 hours ngrok was contacted for a refund and no one communicated. they seem to want to keep you trapped. please avod this company and do not pay for upgraded services.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

not solving a problem, it created more problems

  ### 8. Experienced the ngrok with the handson experience with the help of credits

**Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Sathya K. | student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2022

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Undeployed can easily deploy with the help of the ngrok software application.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

If the cost of the service is slightly higher, then I will be very full to deploy the small project. they should include students offering those kinds of plans the it will helpful for easy deployment.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Actually, I am a final year student, I want to showcase my project to the interviewer during the interview if it is deployed it will give extra impression to deploy my small and tiny projects i had been using the ngrok website,

  ### 9. A classic...

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Nicolas F. | Maker/Founder, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2021

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Command line, embeddable. Ease of integration.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

Scattered a bit, would rather have one control screen.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Provide access to web app running in dev mode on my local machine.

  ### 10. Ngrok Local System Host tool

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Anuj N. | Consultant, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** August 27, 2021

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

We can host our local pc as a Host. That's the best thing about this. Without AWS or GCP account, I can host this.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

As I have started exploring this tool so right now, I don't have anything which I wouldn't say I dislike.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I was doing POC for the client, and i was able to show him that POC on my ngrok host and the same POC can be accessed by the client on his pc; that's the best part.

  ### 11. Best tool for creating tunnels

**Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Rahul B. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** July 30, 2020

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

The best thing I liked about ngrok is that a person can create tunnels to his own system using this tool, i.e a person can make his IP: port online via this tool so that he can test out various functionality for the app/tool running in the port.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

The thing I disliked was that int the free version the URL created was automatically closed in 8 hours. A user should get the option to increase that. Also, the speed of the ngrok connection depends on the user's internet speed, which for me is an issue.

**Recommendations to others considering ngrok:**

Ngrok is a great tool for creating tunnel to a person's IP. If you want to securely expose your local web server to the internet and capture all traffic for detailed inspection and replay then this tool is for you, Also, it offers a free trial that can use used by a person for testing purposes. You can test your frontend as well as your backend by creating a tunnel your local system.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

I am a full stack developer. So, with ngrok I try to connect my frontend which is online to my local backend for the testing of the API's which I have created for the app since the frontend can't be used offline. Also, I could share the URL to my colleagues so that they can verify the API too. Also, I used it to test the frontend features of a website which cannot be used offline.

  ### 12. Make your dailywork simpler

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2021

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

I have used Ngrok for more than 5 years. Ngrok has a free plan that is sufficient for time to time integrations. The solution is reliable and fast.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

Nothing to dislike, but to have a subdomain address you have to upgrade to a paid plan. Unfortunately, having the free tier cause that  ever restarts of the tunnel gives You a new address so You have to update the corresponding configuration

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

Thanks to Ngrok I am able to integrate my localhost environment with any 3rd part services without a problem - just like have a public IP address.

  ### 13. Access localhost REMOTELY !!

**Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars

**Reviewed by:** Gangotri p. | Senior Developer, Higher Education, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

**Reviewed Date:** March 14, 2019

**What do you like best about ngrok?**

Unique concept that links your port to divert your traffic from that port to internet so that it can be accessible anywhere in the world without any range or network constrain.
Just install NGROK, run it on cmd to divert your traffic and all set. Now you anyone can access your that port on internet with specific url.
Its useful to show the client real time progress of your project if you are working on web development without having your customer to visit your place to check the finished work.

**What do you dislike about ngrok?**

Your data is EXPOSED. With whole project going live on internet, anyone can access the website.

Also you need to have the source device on with ngrok running on it.

**What problems is ngrok solving and how is that benefiting you?**

If you have pc without wifi module and you need to send/receive data from mobile to particular port... say json response from you local offline project to android device which requires to connect both device under same network, this could create problem. With ngrok this restriction is eliminated.


## ngrok Discussions
  - [Does Ngrok have a limit?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/does-ngrok-have-a-limit)
  - [What is Ngrok tool?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-ngrok-tool)
  - [What is the function of Ngrok?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-function-of-ngrok)
  - [Are you planning to increase the limit in the free version?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/30089-are-you-planning-to-increase-the-limit-in-the-free-version)

- [View ngrok pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/ngrok/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+12%3A46%3A01+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=12df1fd6-18be-4c1f-ac3a-6262e82e4065&secure%5Btoken%5D=9b7345982d36e2198e6f00de67e8d1414c8e3df90cf5980adf8b42d079dacb39&format=llm_user)

## ngrok Features
**Management**
- Network Automation
- Network Traffic Analyzer
- User Provisioning
- Network Analytics
- Resource Maintenance

**Usability - Load Balancing**
- User Interface Design
- Setup Simplicity
- Platform Integration
- Container Support

**Monitoring**
- Network Monitoring
- Network Discovery
- Network Asset Mapping

**Performance Optimization - Load Balancing**
- Global Load Balancing
- Dynamic Resource Allocation
- Server Health Monitoring
- Disaster Recovery

**Support**
- Real-time alerting
- Hybrid Infrastructure Support
- API Integration

**Security & Compliance - Load Balancing**
- SSL/TLS Termination
- Application Firewall Integration
- DDoS Mitigation
- Access Control
- IP Whitelisting/Blacklisting

**Agentic AI - Network Management Tools**
- Autonomous Task Execution
- Multi-step Planning
- Cross-system Integration
- Adaptive Learning
- Natural Language Interaction
- Proactive Assistance
- Decision Making

## Top ngrok Alternatives
  - [Cloudflare Application Security and Performance](https://www.g2.com/products/cloudflare-application-security-and-performance/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (577 reviews)
  - [HAProxy](https://www.g2.com/products/haproxy/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (883 reviews)
  - [Hostwinds](https://www.g2.com/products/hostwinds/reviews) - 4.9/5.0 (419 reviews)

