1. Ngrok:

• Opens a secure tunnel to ngrok’s servers, forwards requests to your local service
• ngrok auto-generates HTTPS
• TLS termination happens at ngrok
• No SSL setup needed locally

Internet
   ↓
ngrok Public URL (HTTPS)
   ↓ (secure tunnel)
ngrok Client (local machine)
   ↓
Local App (localhost:8080)

Command:

ngrok http 8080
# Result https://abc123.ngrok.io → http://localhost:8080

2. Cloudflare Tunnel (prod grade)

• Exposes a local service to the internet without opening inbound ports (very secure), using Cloudflare’s global network.
  • No public IP needed
  • No port forwarding
  • Works via an outbound connection
  • Integrated with Cloudflare security (WAF, Access, DNS)

Internet
   ↓
Cloudflare Edge (HTTPS)
   ↓
Encrypted Tunnel
   ↓
cloudflared (local agent)
   ↓
Local App (localhost:8080)

Quick tunnel:

winget install Cloudflare.cloudflared
cloudflared tunnel --url http://localhost:3000