ngrok alternative: permanent subdomain, 24/7 uptime, lower price
ngrok is great for quick dev tests, but has issues for home Home Assistant use: random URL on free tier, bandwidth limits, no multi-client panel. SmartHomeEntry fixes these.
SmartHomeEntry vs ngrok
| SmartHomeEntry | ngrok | |
|---|---|---|
| URL after restart | Permanent subdomain (your-home-3a1f9c8b2e4d.smarthomeentry.com) | Random on free tier, permanent on paid (from $10/mo) |
| Bandwidth limit | No TOS limit (relay has its own) | Free: 1 GB one-time, Hobbyist: 5 GB/mo |
| Price (permanent subdomain) | $7/mo (1 service) or $5/7 days one-time | ~$10/mo (Hobbyist plan) |
| Installer panel | Many services, alerts, availability report PDF (Pro/Business) | None - per agent |
| Target use case | Persistent home/installer remote access | Dev/testing (webhook tunneling, staging) |
5 reasons SmartHomeEntry is better for Home Assistant
Permanent subdomain in the base plan
ngrok free tier gives a random URL like `abc123.ngrok.io` that CHANGES on every agent restart. Your HA Companion app breaks. SmartHomeEntry gives you `your-home-3a1f9c8b2e4d.smarthomeentry.com` from the Home plan ($7/mo) - the URL is permanent.
No TOS bandwidth limits
ngrok free tier caps data transfer at 1 GB, and the paid Hobbyist plan includes 5 GB. Streaming a camera from HA or backing up via Nextcloud quickly exceeds those. SmartHomeEntry has no TOS limit - our relay has technical performance limits, but we don't terminate the account for overage.
Installer panel with multi-client
ngrok works per agent: there's no single panel where you see your 20 clients, their availability and offline alerts. SmartHomeEntry Pro ($24/mo for 5 services) or Business ($60 for 20, with availability report PDFs) is built exactly for this.
One-time access for a trip
If you only need remote access for trips, buy one-time access ($5 for 7 days, $12 for 30 days) instead of paying a subscription all year. For constant use the $7/mo subscription is cheaper.
EU servers (GDPR friendly)
ngrok: mostly US infrastructure. SmartHomeEntry: EU servers (OVH Warsaw). For European users, simplifies compliance and usually cuts latency (30-50 ms vs 80-150 ms to US).
3 situations where ngrok is the better pick
Dev tunneling and webhook testing
ngrok is built for this - one `ngrok http 3000` and you have a public URL to your localhost. Ideal for testing Stripe webhooks, GitHub Actions callbacks, Shopify app dev. SmartHomeEntry is more dedicated to persistent exposure of Home Assistant / Domoticz / self-hosted services, not short-lived development.
Team features (ngrok Pay-as-you-go)
ngrok's paid tier has shared agents for teams, reserved addresses and edge config. Valuable for a dev team. SmartHomeEntry has no team accounts or roles - one account sees all services. It's a tool for installers serving clients, not for developers sharing localhost.
HTTP traffic inspect panel
ngrok has a web UI showing every HTTP request/response through the tunnel - great for debugging webhooks and APIs. SmartHomeEntry doesn't have this - we're a production tunnel, not a dev-inspection tool.
SmartHomeEntry vs ngrok
Two main issues: (1) Free tier gives a random URL that changes on every agent restart - your HA Companion app disconnects and you have to update the URL manually. (2) The 1 GB transfer limit is easy to blow through when streaming security cameras or Jellyfin. Paid ngrok plans ($10+/mo) fix these, but then SmartHomeEntry ($7/mo) is cheaper.
Yes. Realistic scenario: ngrok for dev tunneling on your code projects + SmartHomeEntry for persistent remote access to your home Home Assistant. Two separate use cases, two different tools.
Not at the same level. Our dashboard has connection logs, uptime history, and health score - but not deep HTTP packet inspection like ngrok Inspect. If you need that for dev - ngrok is better. If you want a stable production tunnel - SmartHomeEntry.
No. SmartHomeEntry only tunnels HTTP/HTTPS to a web panel. If you need SSH/RDP/Postgres through a tunnel - use ngrok (paid) or Tailscale.
Stable, cheap, no surprises
$5 for 7 days with a permanent subdomain, no bandwidth limits. For Home Assistant that's usually what you're looking for.