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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Holesail.io

Hi guys, Wanted to share a project I have been working on for a while https://github.com/holesail/holesail It is a lightweight reverse proxy similar to Ngrok but works over peer-to-peer tunnels and requires absolutely no configuration. No port forwarding, no VPNs, no servers in the middle just a direct, end-to-end encrypted connection between two peers using a simple connection key. It supports both UDP and TCP and runs on Linux, Mac, Windows, Android and iOS and has a Node API that can be used to integrate it into any Android, iOS or CLI app. The goal is to make Holesail…

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    WireHole offers a unified docker-compose project that integrates WireGuard, PiHole, and Unbound, complete with a user interface. This solution is designed to empower users to swiftly set up and manage either a full or split-tunnel WireGuard VPN. It features ad-blocking capabilities through PiHole and enhanced DNS caching and privacy options via Unbound. The intuitive UI makes deployment and ongoing management straightforward, providing a comprehensive VPN solution with added privacy features.

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

  2. 2

    NextDNS protects you from all kinds of security threats, blocks ads and trackers on websites and in apps and provides a safe and supervised Internet for kids — on all devices and on all networks.

    2019 · nextdns.io · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Hi, I just saw this tweet[^1] by @QuinnyPig that mentions accessing your Pi-hole while traveling thanks to TailScale and wondered how to deploy Pi-hole at the edge, instead of a home lab, for improved latency. My simple solution involves running it on Fly.io to make it easy to relocate anywhere, and embedding tailscale into the same firecracker VM (né docker container) to keep the infra dead simple and cheap. Naively deploying a publicly accessible DNS resolver is not ideal[^2] so the main constraint was to secure the VM by 1) keeping all public ports closed and 2) having Pi-hole listen only…

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Expose localhost to the internet with a public URL

    2020 · tunnelto.dev · its alternatives →

  5. 5
    btunnel▲117

    No more localhost, welcome to the internet

    2023 · its alternatives →

  6. 6

    ngrok is developer infrastructure that routes and secures traffic to your apps, APIs, and AI models, wherever they run. Start on localhost, ship to prod.

    2013 · ngrok.com · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    A fast SOCKS5 proxy that tunnels your traffic through what looks like normal SMTP email, bypassing Deep Packet Inspection firewalls. How it works: - Client runs a local SOCKS5 proxy (127.0.0.1:1080) - Traffic is sent to server disguised as SMTP (EHLO, STARTTLS, AUTH) - DPI sees legitimate email session, not a VPN/proxy Features: - One-liner install on any Linux VPS - Multi-user with per-user secrets and IP whitelists - Auto-generated client packages (just double-click to run) - Auto-reconnect on connection loss - Works with any app that supports SOCKS5 Tech: Python/asyncio, TLS…

    Jan 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8
    Pinggy▲282

    Public URLs for localhost without downloading any binary

    2024 · pinggy.io · its alternatives →

  9. 9
    Expose▲126

    Share your local sites via secure tunnels

    2021 · expose.dev · its alternatives →

  10. 10
  11. 11
    wsgrok▲7

    I built it for myself because ngrok didn't let me add one more domain unless I paid $12 more. I probably should've looked for alternatives before building my own, but my grudge got in the way . Once I started, I wanted to make it better than the other options. Silly, I know. No one probably cares. I plan to open source it sometime next year because I’ve got other projects to finish first. It's free until I deplete my cloud credits, then it will switch to a tier-based model with a free option.

    Jan 2026 · wsgrok.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12AS

    This is a proof of concept utility which allows you to expose local services to the internet at large: https://github.com/skx/tunneller In short it is a simple ngrok alternative, which you can self-host. Because it is a proof of concept it hasn't been tested extensively, but it seems like it will solve my immediate-needs. Of course it needs test, and structure added. But feedback can't hurt :)

    2019 · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    SCTP is a low level protocol focused on reliable packet transmission. Unlike hopelessly flinging packets from one device to another, it makes sure that the packets are correct using CRC, removes duplicate packets, and allows for packets to be sent in any order. Going into an established library, I thought that everything was already implemented and that there wasn't anything to do until I went through the existing issues and organized all the tasks and decided on an order. Sean DuBois (https://github.com/Sean-Der), one of the co-creators and current maintainers of Pion, an…

    2025 · pion.ly · its alternatives →

  14. 14RT

    Every privacy-focused DNS service requires an account: NextDNS, Cloudflare for Families, Apple's iCloud Private Relay (paid, iOS-only). The protocol that doesn’t require one - ODoH - had basically one well-known public relay operator (Frank Denis on Fastly Compute, default in dnscrypt-proxy). I built a second one and the client to talk to it.

    May 2026 · numa.rs · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Over the past couple of months, I've been working on connet. At this point, it is working pretty smoothly (in what I use it for), so I wanted to share it with more people and see what they think. I know many other similar/reverse proxy solutions exist - like https://github.com/fatedier/frp, https://github.com/rapiz1/rathole, and a bunch more you can find at https://github.com/anderspitman/awesome-tunneling. However, I wanted to try and put my own little peer-to-peer twist on it. Thanks for checking it out, and sharing any…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16IM

    Tools, calculator, and helpful information for network engineering, web developers, and IT professionals.

    2013 · tunnelsup.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Pinggy is the simplest way to bring your localhost projects online. It the the fastest way to create secure tunnels to localhost with a public url.

    2023 · pinggy.io · its alternatives →

  18. 18AS

    Hi! I am sharing this because it may be useful to others. I created a simple Docker image that lets you easily expose a web app running locally on your dev machine to the Internet, via a proxy server. It is a self hosted alternative to something like Ngrok, which is a paid service if you use custom domains. A small server is cheaper than Ngrok (I use Hetzner Cloud and the cheapest server costs me 3€ per month). I use this method in particular to test HTTP verification with Let's Encrypt for a SaaS app running on my Mac. Hope this is useful :) Code:…

    2019 · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Expose your local web server to the internet with a public URL

    2020 · tunnelto.dev · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Hello HN, I’ve always loved building frontend-only apps—those you can prototype over a weekend, host for free on GitHub Pages, and scale to millions of users. Unfortunately, AI-enabled apps complicate things, as exposing your OpenAI key to the world is obviously a no-go. This also means mobile developers often have to run their own servers. That’s why I built ServerlessAI, an API gateway that lets you securely call multiple AI providers directly from client side using OpenAI-compatible APIs. You can authenticate users through any identity provider, like Google or Apple, and set per-user…

    2024 · serverlessai.dev · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    zrok is a fun incubator project I've been working on over the last six months. The goal was to see how we could build a tool in the genre of "reverse-proxy-meets-streamlined-sharing", like a lot of the other tools that you probably know, already love, or use regularly. I've been part of the OpenZiti team for years now, and it was an obvious choice to use OpenZiti as the foundation for zrok. We already know OpenZiti inside and out, and we know how it can best be leveraged to build a tool like this so that it's secure, zero-trust, and scalable, all while still keeping it friction-free and easy…

    2023 · blog.openziti.io · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Contribute to manibatra/kube-pihole development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    I'm the founder at Netrinos. I built a WireGuard-based mesh VPN because remote access has always been a pain. After years of SSH tunnels, IPsec headaches, and the ssh log horror movie, I wanted something simpler: install, sign in, get work done. Netrinos creates a LAN-like overlay network across your devices. Connections are direct P2P via WireGuard, with no central server routing traffic. Each device gets a stable IP and DNS name (pc.you.netrinos.com). When direct connections fail, they fall back to a relay server that's still encrypted end-to-end. We can't see your traffic. The most…

    Dec 2025 · netrinos.com · its alternatives →

  24. 24

    A smart proxy to connect docker containers. Contribute to vishvananda/wormhole development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2014 · github.com · its alternatives →

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