ngrok is a great product that pioneered the tunneling category. Tunels is built on the same foundation but takes a different approach to pricing, privacy, and developer experience. Here's an honest comparison.
Open-Source Heritage
Tunels is based on the original open-source ngrok 1.x codebase, modernized for Go 1.25 with significant security improvements. We believe in transparency — our tunnel protocol is documented and our enforcement model is fail-closed by design.
Pricing Comparison
| Feature | ngrok Free | Tunels Free |
|---|---|---|
| Tunnels | 1 | 1 |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domains | No (paid) | No (Pro+) |
| Bandwidth | Limited | 3 GB/mo |
| Request inspection | Yes | Yes |
Where Tunels stands out is at the paid tiers. Our Pro plan at $5/month includes 5 tunnels, static domains, and TCP support — features that cost significantly more on ngrok.
Student Plan
We offer a free Student plan with enhanced features for verified students and educators. ngrok doesn't have an equivalent program. We believe students building the next generation of software shouldn't be limited by pricing.
Privacy
Tunels does not log or inspect your tunnel traffic. We record connection metadata (timestamps, bytes transferred) for billing and enforcement purposes, but the content of your HTTP requests is never stored or analyzed by our infrastructure.
Self-Hosting
For teams with strict compliance requirements, Tunels infrastructure can be self-hosted. Run the tunnel server on your own infrastructure with your own domain.
When to Choose ngrok
ngrok has a more mature ecosystem with official integrations, a larger community, and more extensive documentation. If you need advanced features like edge modules, circuit breakers, or a global points of presence network, ngrok may be the better choice today.
When to Choose Tunels
Choose Tunels if you value affordable pricing, student accessibility, privacy-first design, or self-hosting capability. Our Pro plan delivers excellent value for small teams and individual developers.
