hostcLocalhost,
anywhere.
One command gives your dev server a public HTTPS URL. WebSockets and hot reload work through it, so every save shows up for whoever has the link. Free, with no account.
$npx hostc@latest 3000
Needs Node.js 22 or later. Run it with --help to see every option.
What you get
- Hot reload works
- WebSockets pass straight through, so Vite and Next.js hot reload update the page on every device the moment you save.
- Dev servers just work
- Requests arrive addressed to localhost, so dev servers accept them without configuration.
- Everything else gets through
- Pages, APIs and forms, Server-Sent Events, streaming responses and streaming uploads.
- The URL stays put
- After a network drop or a server restart, hostc reconnects to the same tunnel. The link you shared keeps working.
- Visitors see your app
- No warning page to click through before they reach it.
- Nothing to set up
- No sign-up, no auth token, no binary to download: if you have Node.js, you have hostc. Press Ctrl+C and the URL is gone.
Use it to
- Share what you built with AI
- Built something with an AI coding tool? Send the link before you deploy anything.
- Show work in progress
- Let a teammate or a client click through your app while you keep working on it.
- Test webhooks
- Point Stripe, GitHub or Slack at the URL and debug them against the code on your machine.
- Try it on your phone
- Open the URL on a real device; hot reload keeps it in step with every save.
vs Cloudflare Tunnel
hostc runs on Cloudflare too. It does one narrower job than Cloudflare's own tunnels: sharing a dev server for a while.
| hostc | Quick Tunnel | Cloudflare Tunnel | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Install | Node.js only | cloudflared |
cloudflared |
| Account | None | None | Required |
| URL | Random | Random | Your hostname |
| Server-Sent Events | Yes | No | Yes |
| Dev servers | Work as is | May need the host allowed | Configurable |
| Access control | None | None | Cloudflare Access |
| Made for | Sharing a dev server | Quick tests | Production |
Good to know
- The URL is public
- Anyone who has it reaches your server. Share only what you mean to, never anything holding secrets.
- Always @latest
-
hostc is free and moves fast. Run it with
npxinstead of installing it globally; an outdated CLI exits at startup and tells you to upgrade. - Coding agents
- They run the same command and read the URL from its output. llms.txt tells them how.
- Free and open source
- Down to the server, which you can deploy to your own domain. If hostc helps you, a star on GitHub helps other developers find it.