The ngrok Alternative Nobody's Talking About

You haven't heard of sher, but you should use it daily.

It's the simplest solution to one of the most common developer frustrations: sharing localhost previews. No tunnels to set up, no accounts to create, no pricing tiers to worry about. Just sher in your terminal and get an instant preview URL for any local project.

The Problem It Solves

Every day, developers need to:

• Show work-in-progress to clients
• Get feedback on localhost changes
• Test on mobile devices
• Share development builds with teammates

The typical workflow involves either deploying to Vercel (overkill for quick previews), setting up ngrok (requires account and configuration), or walking over to someone's desk (if you're co-located).

Sher eliminates all that friction.

Zero Configuration

Works with Vite, Next.js, Astro, and basically any local development server. No configuration files, no webhook setup, no port forwarding headaches. It just detects your local server and generates a shareable URL.

The tool is open-source and freemium — perfect for the daily use case where you just need to quickly show something to someone.

Why It's Underrated

Sher has just 1 vote despite solving a problem every developer faces multiple times per day. This is exactly the type of tool that should be in every developer's toolkit but gets overlooked because:

1. It's not flashy — does one thing simply instead of promising to revolutionize your workflow
2. No VC backing — no marketing budget to promote it
3. Solves a "small" problem — even though this small problem happens constantly

Compared to ngrok's complexity and pricing, or Vercel's deployment overhead, sher's simplicity is actually a feature. Sometimes the best tools are the ones that get out of your way.

Better Than Paid Alternatives

Ngrok requires account setup, has usage limits, and adds complexity for simple preview sharing. Vercel deployments are overkill when you just want to show a localhost change. Sher gives you the core functionality — instant preview URLs — without the overhead.

For daily development workflow, the tool that's always available and requires zero setup beats the tool with more features but higher friction.

Try sher →