Name: WorksLocal
Author: WorksLocal

Question 1

Is WorksLocal really free?

Accepted Answer

Yes. WorksLocal is 100% free and open source under the MIT license. Custom subdomains, web inspector, catch mode, and the CLI are all free forever. No trial period. The entire codebase is open source and self-hostable.

Question 2

How is WorksLocal different from ngrok?

Accepted Answer

WorksLocal is fully open source (MIT), gives you free persistent subdomains that survive restarts, has no interstitial page, no mandatory account, no bandwidth cap, includes a built-in webhook inspector, and has a unique catch mode that captures payloads without a running local server. ngrok's free tier gives you rotating random URLs, an interstitial page on every request, 1 GB bandwidth cap, and requires signup.

Question 3

Do I need to create an account?

Accepted Answer

No. Run 'npm install -g workslocal && workslocal http 3000' and get a working public HTTPS URL instantly. No signup, no login, no credit card. Create a free account only when you want persistent custom subdomains.

Question 4

What is catch mode?

Accepted Answer

Catch mode creates a public HTTPS URL that captures incoming HTTP requests without forwarding them to a local server. Run 'workslocal catch --port 8080' and requests are held in a queue until your server comes online. It's like webhook.site built into your tunnel tool. No competitor offers this.

Question 5

Does WorksLocal store or inspect my traffic?

Accepted Answer

No. WorksLocal follows the dumb-pipe principle. The relay server is a pure packet forwarder — request and response bodies never touch server disk. All inspection, storage, and replay happens client-side on your machine. Your data never leaves your local environment.

Question 6

Can I self-host WorksLocal?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The entire stack is open source under MIT. The relay runs on Cloudflare Workers (free tier) or any Node.js server. Deploy your own infrastructure with zero cost.

Question 7

Does WorksLocal support WebSockets?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Full WebSocket passthrough. Socket.io, native WebSockets, and WebRTC signaling all relay transparently through the tunnel with no configuration.

Question 8

What infrastructure does WorksLocal run on?

Accepted Answer

WorksLocal's relay runs on Cloudflare Workers with Durable Objects at the edge. Each tunnel gets its own Durable Object, minimizing latency by routing through the nearest Cloudflare data center to your machine. Total infrastructure cost: $0.

Features