ngrok
ngrok is an API-first ingress-as-a-service platform that unifies reverse proxy, API gateway, firewall, and load balancing to route and secure traffic for apps, APIs, and AI models. It serves over 5 million developers and enterprises including Microsoft, GitHub, Databricks, and OpenAI.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What ngrok does
ngrok operates an API-first ingress-as-a-service platform that routes and secures traffic to applications, APIs, and AI models, both in developer environments and in production. The platform unifies reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway, and global load balancing into a single cloud-delivered service, built on an outbound-only connection model that allows ingress into networks behind NAT or firewalls without requiring public IP addresses. Core products include the ngrok Gateway, AI Gateway (a multi-provider LLM routing service), Share Localhost (secure tunneling for local development), and a Kubernetes Operator for cloud-native ingress; the Universal Gateway umbrella extends the platform to webhooks, ephemeral workloads, site-to-site connectivity, and device gateways. Supporting components include Traffic Policy (declarative YAML/JSON for authentication, rate limiting, circuit breaking, and PII redaction), Cloud Endpoints for always-on connectivity, Endpoint Pools for load balancing, and SDKs in Go, Node.js, Rust, Python, and Java.
ngrok monetizes through a freemium and tiered subscription model (Free, Pro, Business, Enterprise) with annual billing and enterprise licensing for advanced security, compliance (SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, EU-US DPF), and dedicated support. A usage-based credit system ($5.00 minimum) was introduced for AI Gateway. The company distributes primarily through product-led growth and self-serve downloads, supplemented by listings in the Microsoft Store, Docker Hub, a Docker Desktop Extension, GitHub, and active presence at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon. The customer base spans individual developers, DevOps/SRE teams, AI/ML developers, and enterprise Kubernetes users, with named enterprise customers including Microsoft, GitHub, Twilio, Zoom, Databricks, HashiCorp, OpenAI, Perplexity, Zendesk, and Okta, alongside a community of more than 5 million developers.
Founded as an open-source project in 2013 and incorporated as ngrok, Inc. in California, the company operated as a bootstrapped business for seven years before raising a $50 million Series A in December 2022 led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Coatue. It is headquartered in San Francisco with 51–100 employees and remains privately held. The leadership team is led by founder and CEO Alan Shreve, with Peter Shafton as CTO, Ben Sabrin as CRO, and additional executives recruited from F5 and Twilio.
ngrok firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- ngrok
- Legal name
- ngrok, Inc.
- Website
- https://ngrok.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- ngrok is an API-first ingress-as-a-service platform that unifies reverse proxy, API gateway, firewall, and load balancing to route and secure traffic for apps, APIs, and AI models. It serves over 5 million developers and enterprises including Microsoft, GitHub, Databricks, and OpenAI.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
ngrok industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cloud Networking Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cloud Networking Core Services (VPC/VNet, Load Balancing, DNS, NAT) (HDABAAAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Cloud Network Security (Microsegmentation, Cloud Firewall, WAF, DDoS) (HDABAHAJ), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) & Secure SD-WAN (HDAIAFAH)
Keywords
Where ngrok is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
ngrok business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Free Tier: Basic ngrok functionality available at no cost for individual developers, includes OAuth and webhook validation on free plan.
- Paid Subscription Plans: Subscription-based tiers with advanced features, higher limits, and enterprise capabilities. Includes Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers.
- AI Gateway Credits: Credit-based system for AI Gateway usage, requires Pay-as-you-go plan, minimum $5.00 purchase. Credits used for LLM requests through ngrok-managed provider keys.
- Enterprise Licensing: Enterprise-grade features including advanced security, compliance (HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II), custom domains, and dedicated support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free - Basic ingress functionality for developers |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Pay-as-you-go - AI Gateway with credit system |
| Subscription | Annual | Paid Plans - Pro, Business, Enterprise |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels8 records
ngrok product offering
Product offeringCore offering
ngrok is an API-first ingress-as-a-service platform that provides a unified cloud networking solution combining reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway, and global load balancing to deliver, secure, and route traffic to applications, APIs, and AI models. Its proprietary outbound-only connection model enables secure ingress into any environment—including NAT-bound clusters—without requiring public IPs or firewall modifications. The platform offers SDKs in Go, Node.js, Rust, Python, and Java, and is used by over 5 million developers and enterprises including Microsoft, GitHub, Twilio, Databricks, and OpenAI.
Product overview
ngrok is a developer-focused platform for secure application ingress that has evolved from a simple localhost tunneling tool into a comprehensive unified gateway platform. The core product portfolio consists of ngrok Gateway (an all-in-one cloud networking platform combining reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway, and global load balancing), AI Gateway (for routing LLM requests across multiple providers with automatic failover and observability), and Share Localhost (the foundational secure tunneling capability). The Universal Gateway umbrella encompasses API gateway, webhook gateway, ephemeral workloads, site-to-site connectivity, device gateway, and remote access features. Additional modules include the Kubernetes Operator for cloud-native ingress, Traffic Policy for declarative traffic manipulation, Endpoint Pools for load balancing, Secrets management for credential handling, Cloud Endpoints for always-on connectivity, and Internal Endpoints for private network services. SDKs are available in Go, Node.js, Rust, Python, and Java. The platform serves over 5 million developers and is trusted by major enterprises including Microsoft, GitHub, Twilio, and Zoom.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- AI Gateway: A gateway service for routing AI requests to multiple providers with automatic failover, load balancing, and observability.
- ngrok Operator
Products and services
- ngrok Gateway An all-in-one cloud networking platform that secures, transforms, and routes traffic to all services regardless of where they run. Combines reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway, and global load balancing capabilities with a global network of Points of Presence for automatic latency-based routing.
- AI Gateway A unified platform to route AI requests to any provider (cloud or self-hosted) through a single endpoint with automatic failover, key rotation, and custom selection strategies. Supports OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and custom providers including self-hosted models.
- Kubernetes Operator Kubernetes-native ingress controller and operator that works behind NAT. Automates TLS certificate provisioning, supports ExternalDNS integration, and provides ngrok modules including OAuth, OIDC, SAML, IP restrictions, and webhook verification.
- Docker Desktop Extension Provides instant endpoints for local containerized APIs or applications from Docker Desktop, with the ability to apply authentication, routing, and rate limit rules to local containerized services.
- Cloud Endpoints Always-on ngrok endpoints that remain online even when disconnected from the internet. Provides persistent, externally accessible entry points into networks without requiring continuous agent connectivity, managed via API or dashboard.
Quantifiable outcome
- 5M+ developers worldwide trust ngrok
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use ngrok
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
ngrok technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration21 records
AI capability4 records
Feature6 records
ngrok partnerships and signals
Strategic signalScale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
ngrok competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Cloudflare: Cloudflare is the most direct competitor to ngrok across nearly its entire product surface. Cloudflare Tunnel, Cloudflare Access, Cloudflare WAF, and Cloudflare AI Gateway all compete head-to-head with ngrok's offerings, and Cloudflare's massive global edge network is the primary alternative infrastructure developers evaluate when choosing between ngrok and a hyperscaler-grade platform.
- Tailscale: Tailscale provides zero-config VPN and secure connectivity built on WireGuard, directly competing with ngrok's site-to-site connectivity, device gateway, and remote access capabilities. Both target developers and DevOps teams needing secure connectivity without traditional VPN complexity, and both have achieved strong PLG-driven adoption in the same buyer persona.
- Kong: Kong is a leading API gateway and service mesh platform that directly competes with ngrok Gateway, particularly for Kubernetes ingress and microservices traffic management. Notably, ngrok's Principal PM Nijiko Yonskai previously held a product role at Kong, underscoring how directly comparable the two companies' offerings are in the API gateway and ingress controller market.
- Cloudflare AI Gateway: Cloudflare's AI Gateway product directly competes with ngrok's AI Gateway, offering LLM routing, caching, failover, and observability across multiple providers. It is bundled into Cloudflare's broader platform, making it a particularly aggressive competitor on price for Cloudflare customers building AI applications.
- HashiCorp Boundary: HashiCorp Boundary provides identity-based secure remote access to applications and infrastructure, overlapping significantly with ngrok's device gateway, site-to-site connectivity, and remote access capabilities. Both target infrastructure teams seeking modern alternatives to traditional VPNs and bastion hosts.
Emerging players
- Portkey: Portkey is an AI gateway and LLM observability platform that competes specifically with ngrok's AI Gateway. It offers multi-provider routing, failover, caching, and analytics for LLM applications, targeting the same AI/ML developer persona with a more AI-native feature set and tooling.
- Traefik Proxy: Traefik is a cloud-native application proxy and ingress controller for Kubernetes environments that overlaps with ngrok's Kubernetes Operator. It is open-source-first and developer-friendly, positioning it as an emerging alternative particularly attractive to platform engineering teams standardizing on Kubernetes-native tooling.
Broad incumbents
- F5 NGINX: F5's NGINX product family includes API gateway, ingress controller, and load balancing capabilities that compete with ngrok Gateway in enterprise Kubernetes and microservices deployments. As a broad incumbent in application delivery, F5 represents a more enterprise-focused alternative with deeper legacy footprint but less developer-friendly positioning.
- Zscaler: Zscaler is a leader in the SASE and zero-trust security space, competing with ngrok's broader secure connectivity positioning for enterprise remote access, branch connectivity, and zero-trust networking. As a large public incumbent, Zscaler represents the established enterprise alternative ngrok may increasingly compete against as it moves upmarket.
Others
- Postman: Postman dominates the API development and testing workflow that ngrok supports through webhook testing and local development tunneling. They are not direct product competitors but share the same developer persona and overlapping developer relations and community strategies; ngrok's Principal PM previously held a product role at Postman.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
ngrok social profiles
Digital presencengrok compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance5 records
ngrok financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
ngrok leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles8 records
ngrok funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors2 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
ngrok M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about ngrok
What does ngrok do?
ngrok is an API-first ingress-as-a-service platform that provides a unified cloud networking solution combining reverse proxy, firewall, API gateway, and global load balancing to deliver, secure, and route traffic to applications, APIs, and AI models. Its proprietary outbound-only connection model enables secure ingress into any environment—including NAT-bound clusters—without requiring public IPs or firewall modifications. The platform offers SDKs in Go, Node.js, Rust, Python, and Java, and is used by over 5 million developers and enterprises including Microsoft, GitHub, Twilio, Databricks, and OpenAI.
Is ngrok a public or private company?
ngrok is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was ngrok founded?
ngrok was founded in 2013. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is ngrok based?
ngrok is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does ngrok make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Free Tier is the primary driver. The others are paid Subscription Plans, AI Gateway Credits and enterprise Licensing.
Who are ngrok's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Cloudflare, Tailscale, Kong, Cloudflare AI Gateway and HashiCorp Boundary. Emerging players are Portkey and Traefik Proxy. Broad incumbents are F5 NGINX and Zscaler. Postman is listed as an others.
Does ngrok have an API?
Yes. ngrok provides a public REST API (API version 2) for managing endpoints, tunnels, traffic policies, credentials, and other ngrok resources. The API is available at https://api.ngrok.com and is used to programmatically configure and manage ngrok's gateway, AI routing, and connectivity features. SDKs are available in Go, Node.js, Rust, Python, and Java. Developer documentation is at ngrok.com/docs/api.
What industry is ngrok in?
ngrok's product category is Cloud Networking Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAAAJ, Cloud Networking Core Services (VPC/VNet, Load Balancing, DNS, NAT), with a secondary code of HDABAHAJ, Cloud Network Security (Microsegmentation, Cloud Firewall, WAF, DDoS). Its NAICS code is 5182 and its SIC code is 7373.