NGROK. How to share localhost on a network without deploying

This article will demonstrate one of ways to share the results of your work available on localhost with the world.

Problem

Let’s say we have a React app that is running on localhost:3000 and:

• you want to share your current results with the designer/PM/team-lead/etc. for a review;
• you want to check how your web page will look like on social-media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.);
• you want to check your app on your iPhone/Android or to test mobile apps connected to your locally running backend;
• you want to run an SEO check using some third-party app like https://sitechecker.pro;

What if you want to share files of your local folder?

Solution

To solve those problems you can use:

• ngrok;
• localtunnel;
• pagekit;
• tailscale;
• and many others;

Ngrok exposes local servers behind NATs and firewalls to the public internet over secure tunnels.

Installation

First, we will need to create an account, log in, download it and install: