tunnelto
Expose your local web server to the internet with a public URL, written in Rust with async-io.
What is tunnelto?
tunnelto is a tool that creates secure tunnels from a local development environment to the public internet, providing a public URL for a locally running web server. It is written in Rust and built with async-io on top of tokio for efficient, non-blocking network operations. It solves the problem of sharing local development work, testing webhooks, or demoing applications without needing to deploy to a production server.
Developers who need to expose a local web server for sharing, testing webhooks, or demoing applications. It is also suitable for teams or individuals who want to self-host their own tunneling server instance.
Developers choose tunnelto for its performance and simplicity, leveraging Rust's efficiency, and for its self-hostable server option which provides control over the tunneling infrastructure. It offers features like custom subdomains, a local introspection dashboard, and API authentication for secure usage.
Overview
Expose your local web server to the internet with a public URL.
Use Cases
Best For
- Sharing a locally running web application with stakeholders for feedback or demos without deploying.
- Testing webhook integrations that require a public endpoint to receive callbacks during local development.
- Providing temporary public access to a local development server for collaborative debugging or pair programming.
- Self-hosting a secure tunneling service with Docker for team or organizational use.
- Using a custom subdomain for consistent, memorable URLs when sharing local work.
- Monitoring and managing active tunnels through a local introspection dashboard.
Not Ideal For
- Organizations requiring a horizontally scalable, multi-instance tunneling service without manual coordination infrastructure.
- Teams seeking a fully managed, zero-configuration tunneling solution with extensive out-of-the-box features.
- Projects needing robust documentation and large community support for troubleshooting and integrations.
Pros & Cons
Pros
Built with Rust's async-io on top of tokio, ensuring efficient, non-blocking network operations for fast and reliable tunneling.
Provides Docker images and configuration options to host your own server, giving full control over the tunneling infrastructure and security.
Allows specifying a custom sub-domain for tunnels, enabling consistent and memorable URLs when sharing local work or demos.
Includes a local dashboard for monitoring and managing active tunnels, offering real-time insights without external dependencies.
Cons
The self-hosted server lacks built-in support for multiple instances; coordination requires additional infrastructure like fly.io's private networking, as admitted in the caveats.
Hosting it yourself involves compiling for musl targets, Docker deployment, and configuring environment variables, which can be cumbersome and non-trivial for quick setups.
The README covers basics but lacks detailed guides for advanced self-hosting scenarios, troubleshooting, or custom domain integration, relying on source code exploration.
Open Source Alternative To
tunnelto is an open-source alternative to the following products:
serveo is a tool that creates secure tunnels from local servers to the internet using SSH, allowing easy sharing of local development environments.
localhost.run is a service that creates secure public URLs for localhost servers, enabling developers to expose local web servers to the internet for testing and sharing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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