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Dev tools · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to ProxyBox Zero

Securely connect web apps and AI agents to local devices

Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier.

  1. 1

    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 →

  2. 2
    Proxy▲268

    Access the office effortlessly, using your phone

    2016 · proxy.co · its alternatives →

  3. 3

    Lockbox is a forward proxy for making third party API calls. - mkjt2/lockbox

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  4. 4

    Hi HN, I'm Tyler Flint, one of the creators of qtap. For a while now, my team and I at Qpoint.io have been grappling with the challenge of understanding what's actually happening inside the encrypted traffic leaving our production systems. Modern apps rely heavily on third-party APIs (think payment processors, data providers, etc.), but once TLS kicks in, figuring out exactly what data is being sent, identifying PII exposure, or debugging integration issues becomes incredibly difficult without resorting to complex and often brittle solutions. Traditional approaches like forward proxies…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Bye Bye Localhost, Hello World!

    2024 · localxpose.io · its alternatives →

  6. 6OS

    ondevice.io - all your devices in one place - no need to set up port forwarding

    2017 · ondevice.io · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    I'm excited to introduce Zerobox, a cross-platform, single binary process sandboxing CLI written in Rust. It uses the sandboxing crates from the OpenAI Codex repo and adds additional functionalities like secret injection, SDK, etc. Watch the demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZiPm9BOPCg Zerobox follows the same sandboxing policy as Deno which is deny by default. The only operation that the command can run is reading files, all writes and network I/O are blocked by default. No VMs, no Docker, no remote servers. Want to block reads to /etc? zerobox…

    Mar 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    A truly private proxy

    2021 · thesocialproxy.com · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    OP here. I built this because I recently caught myself almost pasting a block of logs containing AWS keys into Claude. The Problem: I need the reasoning capabilities of cloud models (GPT/Claude/Gemini), but I can't trust myself not to accidentally leak PII or secrets. The Solution: A Chrome extension that acts as a local middleware. It intercepts the prompt and runs a local BERT model (via a Python FastAPI backend) to scrub names, emails, and keys before the request leaves the browser. A few notes up front (to set expectations clearly): Everything runs 100% locally. Regex detection…

    Dec 2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    Hi HN! I'm Jarek, and I've built this tool that allows publishing .local domains on the local network using mDNS. It also has a reverse proxy that handles HTTPS termination and port forwarding. I'm working on adding more features, like an index page with all available domains or allowing proxy redirects, so you could redirect from HTTP to HTTPS. Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

    2023 · localcan.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11
    Proxy4u▲93

    Fast residential proxies for smooth web scraping - Proxy4u

    2024 · proxy4u.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    A HTTP3 web server for reverse proxy and single page application, automatically apply for ssl certificate, Zero-Configuration. - txthinking/nico

    2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13

    zoro can help you expose local server to external network. Support both TCP/UDP, of course support HTTP. Zero-Configuration. - txthinking/zoro

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    AI-powered proxy solution for block-free web scraping

    2023 · oxylabs.io · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Make your local machine global

    2023 · localportal.io · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    The only way to go fast is full YOLO mode in your coding agent. I've got the local sandbox figured out (pro tip: Incus VMs work great) but I wanted to keep my agents from doing things like inadvertently blowing up my cloud services or chasing a prompt to POST to some random website. I struggle most with this on my side projects where my permission model isn't quite as robust as it is at the office. I started with a firewall on the Incus container but every time the agent needed access to something new, I was poking more holes in it - and it didn't differentiate between HTTP verbs. I've been…

    Jul 2026 · trollbridge.dev · its alternatives →

  17. 17

    Hi HN, I'd like to share a small Go utility I wrote called prxy. The idea was born out of my frustration with accessing my self-hosted services when I'm on the go. I use WireGuard to connect to my homelab, but I really dislike sending all my computer's traffic through my home network — it slows things down and is inconvenient. I wanted proper application-level split-tunneling. A tool I love, wireproxy, got me most of the way there by creating an HTTP proxy from a WireGuard peer. This is perfect for apps that let you configure a proxy. The problem was the other 10%: apps that don't. Think of…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Hey everyone. I built an MTProto proxy for Telegram aimed at bypassing active DPI censorship like the Russian TSPU. I chose Zig because it's perfect for writing fast network daemons and makes it incredibly easy to port low-level C bypass techniques like TCP desync and packet fragmentation. Would love to get some feedback or contributors!

    Apr 2026 · github.com · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Perhaps the easiest way to get a shell on your remote devices wherever they are (even behind NATs and firewalls) -- no VPN required. Offers file transfer right from the terminal itself. Because it is web-based and connects via WebRTC it is better than VPN + SSH in every way: - no setup required on the client machine, it hence works on all OSs and even your phone, - it will always find the shortest-path to your robots, meaning it won’t go through the cloud if you are on the same network as your robot - still end-to-end encrypted - file upload via drag & drop - file download by clicking on…

    2023 · transitiverobotics.com · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    This project template lets you bootstrap your next gRPC app with zero trust overlay networking. Make your gRPC server invisible to bad actors, and only allow verified clients to connect to it.

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21

    Hey folks! We have just released NetBird. It is a big update so I decided to share it here and get your feedback :) NetBird creates an overlay peer-to-peer network connecting machines automatically regardless of their location (home, office, data center, container, cloud, or edge environments) unifying virtual private network management experience. It uses ICE protocol (WebRTC) to negotiate p2p connections and WireGuard (kernel module, when possible) to create a fast and encrypted tunnel between machines, falling back to relay (TURN) in case a p2p connection isn't possible. Pretty much just…

    2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    Hey Everyone! I’ve recently been working on an open-source proxy server to help front end applications securely access third party APIs that require confidential API keys without the need to create your own backend. I would love to get some feedback and hear what you think!

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Tunnel, inspect & mock localhost - no backend needed

    Apr 2026 · proxyhub.app · its alternatives →

  24. 24
    ProxPi▲13

    A Free, Open Source Proxy for your RESTful API's.

    2022 · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →