{"id":510,"date":"2025-10-14T04:43:19","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jaxl.com\/blog\/?p=510"},"modified":"2025-10-14T04:45:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:45:38","slug":"grout-ngrok-alternative-for-secure-self-hosted-and-managed-tunnels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jaxl.com\/blog\/engineering\/grout-ngrok-alternative-for-secure-self-hosted-and-managed-tunnels\/","title":{"rendered":"Grout: Ngrok Alternative for Secure, Self-Hosted &amp; Managed Tunnels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Tired of the limitations and costs of <a href=\"https:\/\/ngrok.com\">Ngrok<\/a>? It&#8217;s time to meet\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/abhinavsingh\/proxy.py?tab=readme-ov-file#grout-ngrok-alternative\">Grout<\/a><\/strong>, the powerful and flexible tunneling solution from the creators of the open-source\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>\u00a0project. Built with developers in mind, Grout provides a high-performance, secure alternative for exposing your local services to the internet. Whether you prefer total control with a self-hosted setup or want the simplicity of a fully managed service, Grout is the future of secure network tunneling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Grout: The best of both worlds<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>For the DIY Enthusiast: Self-Hosted Grout<\/strong> \u2014 Grout is an elegant plugin for the robust\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>\u00a0server. For those who want complete ownership and customization, you can spin up your own Grout server. This gives you full control over your infrastructure, authentication, and routing rules\u2014all powered by a lightweight, high-performance Python application. It\u2019s perfect for privacy-focused projects and custom configurations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>For Instant Productivity: Managed Grout (via <a href=\"https:\/\/jaxl.io\">Jaxl.IO<\/a>)<\/strong> \u2014 For developers who want to get up and running instantly without managing any infrastructure, Jaxl offers Grout as a fully managed service. With our managed solution, you can skip the setup and maintenance and jump straight to what matters: testing your local applications with a public endpoint in seconds. It\u2019s the fastest, most streamlined path to secure tunneling.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why choose Grout Self-Hosted for your tunneling needs?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Grout isn&#8217;t just another Ngrok clone; it\u2019s a robust, customizable, and secure tool designed for developers who demand more control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Own your infrastructure:<\/strong>\u00a0With Grout, you host the tunnel endpoint yourself. This means your data never passes through a third-party service, giving you complete control and peace of mind.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Flexibility and power with\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>:<\/strong>\u00a0Built on the highly extensible\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>\u00a0project, Grout inherits a powerful and reliable foundation. You can leverage the full feature set of\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>\u00a0to customize your tunneling setup, from implementing custom authentication to advanced routing rules.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Secure by default:<\/strong>\u00a0Security is a top priority. Grout supports secure, outbound-only connections to your self-hosted server, preventing unwanted inbound connections to your network. For added security, you can implement authentication and use wildcard domains to control access.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Transparent and open-source:<\/strong>\u00a0As part of an open-source project, Grout&#8217;s code is transparent and auditable. This builds trust and gives the community the power to contribute, report issues, and verify its security.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Grout vs. Ngrok: The key difference<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Feature<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Grout (proxy.py)<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Ngrok<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Hosting Model<\/td><td>Managed or Self-hosted. You control the public endpoint.<\/td><td>Managed service. Ngrok controls the public endpoint.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Control<\/td><td>Full control over your infrastructure and network traffic.<\/td><td>Limited control, dependent on Ngrok&#8217;s service.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Customization<\/td><td>Highly customizable via\u00a0<code>proxy.py<\/code>\u00a0plugins.<\/td><td>Simpler configuration, with features limited by pricing tiers.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Privacy<\/td><td>Your traffic remains on your own infrastructure.<\/td><td>Your traffic passes through a third-party service.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Ideal For<\/td><td>Enterprises and Developers who prioritize privacy, security, and full control.<\/td><td>A wider audience who need a fast, simple way to expose local services.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Grout Features<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is a list of high level features provided out-of-box with grout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Grout Authentication<\/strong> \u2014 Grout supports authentication to protect your files, folders and services from unauthorized access. Use\u00a0<code>--basic-auth<\/code>\u00a0flag to enforce authentication.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Grout Paths<\/strong> \u2014 By default, Grout allows access to all paths on the services. Use\u00a0<code>--path<\/code>\u00a0flag to restrict access to only certain paths on your web service.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Grout Wildcard Domains<\/strong> \u2014 By default, Grout client serves incoming traffic on a dedicated subdomain. However, some services (e.g. Kubernetes) may want to serve traffic on adhoc subdomains. Starting a dedicated Grout client for every adhoc subdomain may not be a practical solution. For such scenarios, Grout supports wildcard domains.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Grout Wildcard Domain Routing Based Upon &#8220;Host&#8221; Header<\/strong> \u2014 Along with the default route you can also provide additional routes which takes precedence when the host field matches.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Grout Client Plugin (customize programmatically)<\/strong> \u2014 <code>GroutClientBasePlugin<\/code>\u00a0allows you to dynamically route traffic to different upstreams.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Grout using Docker<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Following our <a href=\"https:\/\/jaxl.com\/blog\/category\/engineering\/\">&#8220;engineering&#8221;<\/a> blog posts to stay upto date with latest features.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Getting Started with Grout<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Please follow the comprehensive instructions and guide in official <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/abhinavsingh\/proxy.py?tab=readme-ov-file#grout-ngrok-alternative\">README.md<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Introducing Grout, the powerful and versatile open-source tunneling solution from Jaxl that serves as a flexible alternative to Ngrok. Grout offers both self-hosted capabilities for maximum control and a convenient managed service for instant setup. Discover how to effortlessly expose your local servers, collaborate with your team, and test webhooks with this modern reverse proxy. This post covers everything from the open-source project to a quick-start guide for the managed service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[376,373,378,366,377,360,386,374,370,369,375,365,371,363,367,380,385,372,359,368,379,364,382,384,362,383,361,381],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering","tag-api-testing","tag-application-development","tag-cloud-security","tag-developer-tools","tag-devops","tag-grout","tag-http-proxy","tag-jaxl","tag-local-tunneling","tag-localhost","tag-localhost-tunnel","tag-network-security","tag-networking","tag-ngrok-alternative","tag-open-source","tag-open-source-software","tag-open-source-tunneling","tag-port-forwarding","tag-proxy-py","tag-python","tag-remote-debugging","tag-reverse-proxy","tag-secure-data-tunnel","tag-self-hosted","tag-self-hosted-ngrok","tag-tunnel-client","tag-tunneling","tag-web-development"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Grout: Ngrok Alternative for Secure, Self-Hosted &amp; Managed Tunnels - Jaxl Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Introducing Grout, the powerful and versatile open-source tunneling solution from Jaxl that serves as a flexible alternative to Ngrok. 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