One of the most convenient developer tools is an instant URL for a website or app running locally on your dev machine. Ngrok, LocalTunel, Serveo, and others dramatically simplified the process for exposing local servers to the public internet by tunneling through any NAT or firewall. Tools such as these are easy to use and invaluable for testing mobile apps, building webhook consumers, and demoing websites without deploying.
One challenge that is becoming increasingly more common is that many organizations are not permitting tunneling solutions. Why? Tunnels circumvent the firewall creating a major security concern—anything behind the organization’s firewall is then exposed to the internet and can pass freely through the tunnel.
We decided to take the simplicity of these tunneling solutions and create a stateless methodology for providing you with an instant secure public URL without the NetOps concerns.
Vortex allows you to create a custom, secure public URL to your localhost server without the use of stateful tunnels. Vortex utilizes a stateless store-and-forward technique to remove the need for long-lived connections.
This means you can use a Vortex Instant Domain to build your MS Teams chatbot at your Fortune 500 company (yes, we have users doing that) or for testing your mobile app with your offshore development team (yes, we have users doing that) or for demoing websites at your dev school (yes, you guessed it, we have users doing that).
To make things even a little easier on you, your Vortex URL is static—meaning we will not randomly change it every couple of hours. Your domain is yours.
You can get started in just a couple of minutes! See what you can do with Vortex.