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ngrok vs ouicu: free plan limits, warning and price

ngrok is a traffic and API gateway; ouicu shares a dev server with clients. Free limits, warning pages, passwords and prices side by side.

By Mads Sauer, who makes ouicu, one of the tools here, so read it as a maker's comparison: each fact about another product links to that product's own page, read on . Published .

ngrok is a gateway for traffic and APIs, with a free plan that gives a stable address and no time limit. ouicu does one job: it shows the site on your laptop, or a build of it, to a person. Pick ngrok for webhooks, TCP and request replay; pick ouicu when a client opens the link and should see your page, not a warning, behind a password if you like.

At a glance

As of , from each product's own pages (listed under Sources). Prices in US dollars.

ngrok and ouicu side by side
Paid fromFree planWarning page on freePasswords and sign-inSame link each timeProtocolsOpen source
ngrokHobbyist, $10 a month1 GB out and 20,000 HTTP requests a month, up to 3 online endpointsYes, on HTML browser traffic; after Visit, a cookie hides it for 7 daysOAuth, OpenID Connect, SAML or basic auth1 stable dev domain, on Free tooHTTP and TCP; TLS from Pay-as-you-goIts open source v1 is archived
ouicuHobby, $4 a month1 share at a time, 2 hours each, 1 GB a monthYes, a notice on page loads, once a week per browser and share; none on Hobby and ProPassword on Hobby and Pro; invited emails on ProReserved names on Hobby and ProHTTP and WebSockets, web pages onlyNo; the MCP server and SDK are MIT

The free plans

ngrok Free

“they can stay online indefinitely”

ngrok docs, Free plan limits

ouicu Free

  • 1 live share at a time, for 2 hours each, and 1 GB a month.
  • A random name each time, like calm-otter-4821.ouicu.app. Names you keep come with Hobby and Pro.
  • 1 uploaded site of up to 25 MB, kept 7 days.

For a long-running free tunnel with the same address, ngrok's free plan is the better deal. ouicu's is for a quick look.

ngrok's cheapest plan is Hobbyist, $10 a month, and Hobbyist billed yearly saves $24. It is a usage plan with a cap:

“Your endpoints will stop working until the end of your billing cycle when your usage credit resets.”

ngrok, Pricing

Above it, Pay-as-you-go: $20 a month plus usage, 3 users included, then $5 a user. ouicu has two flat plans, VAT included: Hobby at $4 a month with 3 live shares and 25 GB, and Pro at $15 with 10 live shares, 150 GB and teams of 3 seats, then $5 a seat a month. Like Hobbyist, neither runs up a bill: past the month's data, previews pause until the month turns or you move up, as Plans and data explains.

The warning page

Is there a warning page on ngrok Free? Yes, on HTML browser traffic; after Visit, a cookie hides it for 7 days. Any paid plan removes it, Hobbyist included. ouicu Free shows a notice too, once a week per browser and share, on page loads only, so API calls and webhooks pass. Hobby and Pro have none. The guide Skip or avoid ngrok's browser warning page has the headers and the details.

Passwords and sign-in

ngrok protects an endpoint with OAuth, OpenID Connect, SAML or basic auth, set in its Traffic Policy. Free includes 3 OAuth or OIDC users a month and 5 Traffic Policy rules per policy. Mutual TLS from Pay-as-you-go.

ouicu has two choices, aimed at clients who have no account:

  • A password on the link, with Hobby and Pro. A browser that typed it stays in for 7 days.
  • An invite list, with Pro: up to 50 addresses or whole domains. Visitors type their email address and get a link that works for 24 hours.

Dev servers and the Host header

Vite, Angular and other dev servers refuse a request whose Host they don't know, and a tunnel's address is one of those. With ngrok you add the address to the dev server's allowed hosts, or use the flag ngrok documents for virtual hosts: --host-header=rewrite sends your local address as the Host header.

ngrok http --host-header=rewrite 80

ouicu does this on every share: your dev server sees Host: localhost:5173, the public address arrives in X-Forwarded-Host, and hot reload WebSockets get a local Origin so Next.js and webpack accept them.

Where ngrok is better

Its inspector also keeps traffic for longer: the inspector keeps 24 hours of traffic on Free, 72 on paid plans. ouicu shows each request in your terminal and keeps the last 50 per share, with no replay.

Where ouicu fits better

  • An email when someone opens your link, with Hobby and Pro (Visitor emails).
  • The last version stays up while your laptop sleeps, with Hobby and Pro (Last versions).
  • One reserved name for the live share, an uploaded build and the last version, so the client keeps one link.
  • Flat prices: Hobby at $4 a month includes the password.

Questions people ask

Is ngrok free?

Yes: 1 GB out and 20,000 HTTP requests a month, up to 3 online endpoints, with no timeout, and a warning page for browsers.

How much is an ngrok subscription?

Hobbyist, $10 a month, which stops at its included usage. Then Pay-as-you-go: $20 a month plus usage, 3 users included, then $5 a user.

Can I use a static domain in ngrok?

On Free you get one dev domain, and it stays the same. Custom domains need a paid plan.

Should I use ngrok or ouicu?

ngrok for APIs, webhooks, TCP and replay. ouicu for showing a client a site that is still on your laptop.

Try ouicu

Install it (Getting started), then share the port your dev server listens on:

ouicu share 5173

For a client, keep the name and add a password (Hobby and Pro):

ouicu share 5173 --name acme --password

Sources

Prices, defaults and quotes about other products, and the day each was last checked at its source.

  1. Pricing, ngrok. Checked .
  2. Free plan limits, ngrok docs. Checked .
  3. Authentication, ngrok docs. Checked .
  4. Domains, ngrok docs. Checked .
  5. inconshreveable/ngrok, ngrok on GitHub. Checked .
  6. Virtual hosts, ngrok docs. Checked .
  7. Inspect Traffic and Replay Requests, ngrok docs. Checked .