AI visibility report
Inlets ranks #6 in Developer Tunnels & Localhost Ingress AI search.
Outside the top three on 19 of the 25 prompts buyers actually ask.
ngrok is cited on 12 of those losses.
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Track Inlets across these prompts daily.
Start free trial#6 among 10 vendors · still absent from 94.4% of tracked prompt responses
Top-3 citations across 125 prompt × platform pairs
Peer Ranking
Key Metrics
Platform Breakdown
Google AI Mode
Grok
Perplexity
ChatGPT
Gemini SearchNarrower footprint, stronger tone. Inlets ranks #6 on presence but #1 on sentiment. That means the brand is framed well when it appears, but still needs broader prompt-response coverage.
Where Inlets is losing
Prompts where competitors are visible and Inlets is not.
These prompt-level losses are the first prompts to track and repair.
Where Inlets is winning
No clear strengths identified yet.
Where Inlets is losing5
What tunneling solutions integrate well with edge platforms or CDNs to combine tunneling with caching and WAF?
Competitors on 4 platforms
Track this promptWhich tunneling tools handle long-running production deployments without dropping connections?
Competitors on 4 platforms
Track this promptWhich localhost tunneling platforms support custom domains and persistent URLs across restarts?
Competitors on 3 platforms
Track this promptWhich tunneling tools have the best traffic inspection and request replay features for debugging webhooks?
Competitors on 3 platforms
Track this promptWhich developer tunneling tools have the best CI/CD integrations for spinning up ephemeral preview environments per pull request?
Competitors on 3 platforms
Track this prompt
Track Inlets daily before the next report refresh.
Track these gapsResearch dossierCapabilities, use cases, sources, reviews, pricing, and FAQ
Overview
Inlets is a cloud-native tunnel product developed by OpenFaaS Ltd, a UK-based company founded by Alex Ellis. Launched publicly in early 2019, it enables developers and platform teams to expose HTTP and TCP services from private networks—including those behind NAT, firewalls, and corporate proxies—without relying on shared SaaS infrastructure. Unlike managed tunnel services, Inlets runs on servers the user controls, eliminating vendor rate limits and data-privacy concerns. The product family includes inlets Pro for individual and small-team use, Inlets Uplink for Kubernetes-native multi-tenant customer connectivity, and Inlets Cloud for fully managed tunnels. Open-source tooling (inletsctl, inlets-operator) supports automated provisioning on major cloud providers and Kubernetes clusters. It is listed on the CNCF Landscape under Service Proxy.
Inlets is a self-hosted HTTP and TCP tunnel platform that lets developers and infrastructure teams securely expose private services to the internet or connect distributed environments—without shared SaaS servers, rate limits, or VPN overhead. It is built natively for containers and Kubernetes.
Key Facts
- Founded
- 2019
- HQ
- Peterborough, UK
- Founders
- Alex Ellis
- Employees
- 1-10
- Status
- Private
Target users
Key Capabilities10
- Self-hosted HTTP (L7) and TCP (L4) tunnels over TLS-encrypted websockets
- Works through NAT, CGNAT, firewalls, corporate HTTP proxies, and captive portals
- Inlets Uplink: Kubernetes-native multi-tenant control plane scaling to thousands of tunnels
- inletsctl: automated VM provisioning for tunnel servers across 8+ cloud providers
- inlets-operator: Kubernetes Operator providing public LoadBalancer IPs for private clusters
- No rate limits, connection throttling, or shared infrastructure
- Both remote forwarding (local → internet) and local forwarding (remote → localhost)
- Built-in Prometheus metrics and monitoring for tunnel health and throughput
- OAuth (GitHub, Google) and IP allowlist authentication for HTTP tunnels
- High-availability support: multiple tunnel client replicas and server redundancy patterns
Key Use Cases8
- Receiving webhooks from Stripe, GitHub, Slack during local development
- Staging and preview environments with stable public URLs
- SaaS vendor connectivity to private customer on-premises networks or VPCs
- Kubernetes LoadBalancer ingress for local/private clusters (minikube, k3s, KinD)
- Hybrid cloud: tunneling legacy or on-prem services to public cloud workloads
- Homelab and bare-metal internet exposure without IPv4 or port-forwarding
- Remote SSH and RDP access to hosts behind NAT or firewalls
- Multi-cluster ArgoCD management without opening inbound firewall rules
Inlets customer outcomes
Uses Inlets Pro to power staging environments and provide preview build URLs for development workflows.
Uses Inlets to train machine learning models with millions of data points for clients over secure tunnels.
Uses Inlets to connect customers' OpenShift clusters to their product where customer VPCs do not allow any incoming connections.
Uses Inlets Pro to provide secure service and support of their Sense AI Platform deployed through cloud marketplaces.
Recent Trend
How AI describes Inlets3
Self-Hosted Open Source (frp / Inlets / rathole): If you already pay a few dollars a month for a cheap, unmetered Virtual Private Server (VPS), you can use open-source tools like frp or rathole to tunnel your localhost through your own server.
Which localhost tunneling services have unlimited bandwidth on their paid tiers?
inlets ---------- Unlike generic web tunnels, inlets was explicitly designed from the ground up for cloud-native environments and Kubernetes.
Which tunneling platforms can expose Kubernetes services without configuring a load balancer or ingress controller?
### Inlets (by Alex Ellis) Inlets was explicitly built to replace cloud-managed tunnels with an open-source or self-hosted alternative that connects local networks to public cloud exit-nodes.
What are the most reliable tunneling platforms for production-grade ingress, not just dev testing?
Most cited sources8
8GitHub - inlets/inlets-operator: Get public TCP LoadBalancers for local Kubernetes clusters
github.com·Discussion
- D6
Overview - Inlets
docs.inlets.dev·Documentation
- D6
Inlets Operator - Inlets
docs.inlets.dev·Documentation
- 6
Inlets – The Cloud Native Tunnel
inlets.dev·Blog Post
- D2
FAQ - Inlets
docs.inlets.dev·Documentation
- 2
Expose your local Kubernetes Ingress Controller via Hetzner Cloud – Inlets – The Cloud Native Tunnel
inlets.dev·Blog Post
Alternatives in Developer Tunnels & Localhost Ingress6
Inlets differentiates on a fully self-hosted data plane—unlike SaaS tunnels such as ngrok or Cloudflare Tunnel, all tunnel traffic passes through servers the customer owns or provisions, eliminating shared infrastructure, vendor rate-limits, and data-privacy concerns.
- It is purpose-built for Kubernetes and containers rather than retrofitted, supports both remote and local port forwarding, and offers Inlets Uplink as a Kubernetes-native multi-tenant control plane for SaaS vendors that need to reach private customer environments at scale.
- Compared to VPN tools such as Tailscale or WireGuard, Inlets connects specific services rather than entire host IP ranges, reducing attack surface without requiring tun devices, iptables, or NET_ADMIN privileges.
Reviews
Praised
- Self-hosted data plane with full data privacy
- No rate limits or connection throttling
- Purpose-built for Kubernetes and containers
- Works through NAT, firewalls, and corporate proxies
- Local forwarding as a kubectl port-forward replacement
- Fast setup via inletsctl automated VM provisioning
- Lightweight binary with low RAM footprint
- CNCF Landscape recognized
Criticized
- Requires managing and paying for exit-server VMs
- No free commercial tier
- Gumroad license requires internet connectivity at runtime
- Uplink requires a Kubernetes cluster prerequisite
- Small team limits enterprise support depth
- More operational complexity than fully-managed SaaS tunnels
No formal scores on G2, Gartner Peer Insights, or Capterra were found for Inlets. Qualitative testimonials published on the inlets.dev website indicate positive adoption among developers for webhook testing, preview environments, and Kubernetes ingress, as well as SaaS teams using Uplink to reach private customer networks. Community sentiment on GitHub and developer blogs highlights appreciation for the no-rate-limit model, Kubernetes-native design, and local forwarding capability. Recurring friction points noted in community content include the need to manage exit-server VMs and the cost relative to free SaaS alternatives.
Pricing
Three tiers are available on a monthly (no-commitment) or annual basis. Personal: $25/mo includes 5 tunnels for non-commercial personal/homelab use (no email support). Pro Commercial: $25/mo per tunnel for commercial use, includes email support and a free onboarding call. Inlets Uplink: $250/mo per Kubernetes cluster includes 10 tunnels; additional tunnels cost $25/mo each (volume pricing available). Annual subscriptions offer a reduced rate (~$20/mo equivalent for Personal). A static license for air-gapped environments is available on request. A 50% discount on the first month of Uplink is offered for evaluation via a work email contact.
Limitations
- Users must provision and manage their own exit-server VMs (or pay for cloud compute) unless using Inlets Cloud; this adds operational overhead compared to fully-managed SaaS tunnels.
- Gumroad-based licenses require internet connectivity to license servers to validate at runtime.
- Inlets uses TCP/WebSocket rather than UDP, so it does not achieve the raw throughput of WireGuard-based VPNs for high-bandwidth workloads.
- The product is developed and supported by a very small team (OpenFaaS Ltd, UK), which may limit enterprise support SLAs.
- Uplink requires a Kubernetes cluster to deploy the control plane, adding a prerequisite for SaaS use-cases.
- No free tier is available for commercial use.
Frequently asked questions
Topic coverageCoverage by buyer topic
Topic Coverage
Prompt-Level Results
| Prompt | Perplexity | Gemini Search | ChatGPT | Grok | Google AI Mode |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Capability2/5 cited (40%) | |||||
What tools let me securely tunnel into a private network from anywhere without setting up a traditional VPN? | |||||
Which tunneling tools support TCP, UDP, and other non-HTTP protocols for game servers, MQTT, or databases? | |||||
What are the best zero-trust networking solutions that combine tunneling with identity-based access control? | |||||
Which tunneling platforms can expose Kubernetes services without configuring a load balancer or ingress controller? | |||||
Which secure access tools provide identity-aware proxies for SSH, databases, and Kubernetes API access? | |||||
Developer Experience0/5 cited (0%) | |||||
Which localhost tunneling platforms support custom domains and persistent URLs across restarts? | |||||
Which secure access platforms have the smoothest CLI experience for everyday developer workflows? | |||||
Which tunneling tools have the best traffic inspection and request replay features for debugging webhooks? | |||||
What tunneling tools work best for developers building integrations with external APIs that need to call back to localhost? | |||||
What are the best tunnel solutions for teams that want to share local services with each other during development? | |||||
Integrations & Ecosystem1/5 cited (20%) | |||||
What tunneling solutions integrate well with edge platforms or CDNs to combine tunneling with caching and WAF? | |||||
What tunneling tools integrate with identity providers like Okta, Azure AD, or Google Workspace for SSO? | |||||
Which developer tunneling tools have the best CI/CD integrations for spinning up ephemeral preview environments per pull request? | |||||
Which secure access platforms work with infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform for repeatable network setup? | |||||
Which tunneling platforms have official Kubernetes operators or Helm charts for production ingress? | |||||
Performance & Reliability2/5 cited (40%) | |||||
What secure access platforms scale best to hundreds of devices and thousands of users in a corporate network? | |||||
What are the most reliable tunneling platforms for production-grade ingress, not just dev testing? | |||||
Which localhost tunneling services have unlimited bandwidth on their paid tiers? | |||||
Which tunneling tools handle long-running production deployments without dropping connections? | |||||
Which tunneling solutions offer the lowest latency by leveraging a global edge network? | |||||
Setup & First Run0/5 cited (0%) | |||||
I need to share a demo of an app running on my laptop with a remote client — what are my options? | |||||
Which localhost tunneling solutions don't require me to install a binary or sign up for an account? | |||||
What's the fastest way to expose a localhost server to the public internet for testing webhooks? | |||||
What's the simplest way to expose a local webhook endpoint to a third-party service like Stripe or Twilio for testing? | |||||
Which tunneling tools let me get a public HTTPS URL for my local dev server in under a minute? | |||||
Turn this matrix into daily prompt monitoring.
Track prompt changesVertical Ranking
| # | Brand | PresencePres. | Share of VoiceSoV | DocsDocs | BlogBlog | MentionsMent. | Avg PosPos | Sentiment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudflare | 32.8% | 23.6% | 24.0% | 6.4% | 0.0% | #24.3 | +0.38 |
| 2 | ngrok | 31.2% | 23.0% | 22.4% | 12.8% | 0.0% | #16.4 | +0.43 |
| 3 | Pinggy | 30.4% | 13.9% | 3.2% | 28.8% | 0.0% | #25.0 | +0.42 |
| 4 | Tailscale | 25.6% | 20.2% | 11.2% | 7.2% | 0.0% | #28.7 | +0.31 |
| 5 | LocalXpose | 21.6% | 9.1% | 0.0% | 17.6% | 0.0% | #18.3 | +0.34 |
| 6 | Inlets | 5.6% | 3.2% | 4.0% | 0.8% | 0.0% | #35.6 | +0.54 |
| 7 | Teleport | 4.8% | 4.5% | 2.4% | 1.6% | 0.0% | #27.1 | +0.48 |
| 8 | NetFoundry | 3.2% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | #49.9 | +0.47 |
| 9 | NetBird | 2.4% | 1.3% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | #33.4 | +0.52 |
| 10 | PageKite | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | — | — |
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