LocalCan — Public URLs for Localhost

TL;DR

TL;DR: LocalCan gives your localhost a stable public URL for webhook testing, OAuth flows, and sharing live previews — with flat per-seat pricing instead of metered usage.

Source and Accuracy Notes

• Project page: localcan.com
• Docs: localcan.com/docs
• Pricing: localcan.com/#pricing
• HN launch thread: news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41565237
• License: proprietary SaaS (no open-source license)

What Is LocalCan?

LocalCan is a tunnel tool that exposes your local development server on a persistent public URL. Instead of dealing with IP allowlists or redeploying to a staging environment, you run localcan dev and get a shareable link that works as long as your tunnel is active.

The core use case is testing external services that need to call back to your machine — Stripe webhooks, OAuth redirects, payment provider callbacks, or any third-party integration that requires a publicly reachable endpoint.

Beyond temporary tunnels, LocalCan offers Snapshots: captures of your running app at a point in time that stay public even after you shut down your laptop. Share a Snapshot link with a designer, PM, or client and the content stays live.

The product targets developers and agents working with external APIs, MCP server clients that need real public URLs, and teams that demo work-in-progress without deploying.

Setup

Install

brew install localcan

Alternatives: download from localcan.com/download for macOS or Windows, or pull the Docker image for Linux servers.

Basic tunnel

localcan dev --port 3000

LocalCan starts a tunnel and prints a public URL. Every request from the internet directed at that URL is forwarded to your local port 3000.

The CLI shows live connection status, request logs, and tunnel health in the terminal.

Practical Evaluation Checklist

• Install CLI and start a tunnel against a local server running on any port
• Point a Stripe or GitHub webhook at the public URL and confirm delivery in your terminal
• Test an OAuth flow end-to-end using the public redirect URL
• Share a Snapshot link and verify it remains accessible after stopping the tunnel
• Compare pricing against ngrok for a 5-seat team over a month of moderate usage

FAQ

Q: How is this different from ngrok? A: ngrok uses metered per-minute billing. LocalCan charges a flat per-seat price, which becomes cheaper if you run tunnels frequently or at scale.

Q: Does it support custom domains? A: Yes — bring your own domain and point it at LocalCan’s tunnel infrastructure. Covered in the docs under custom domain setup.

Q: Is there an MCP integration? A: Yes. LocalCan can expose an MCP server on a public URL, which is useful for AI clients that need to connect to a hosted runtime with real network access.

Q: Does it work behind corporate firewalls? A: LocalCan initiates an outbound tunnel connection from your machine, so it bypasses inbound firewall restrictions. Corporate egress filtering may still affect it depending on your network policy.

Q: What’s the free trial length? A: 14 days, no credit card required.

Conclusion

LocalCan solves the “I need a public URL for my localhost right now” problem with less friction than configuring Cloudflare Tunnel and a VPS. The flat pricing model is the main differentiator against ngrok, which charges by the minute. If your workflow involves a lot of webhook and OAuth testing across multiple projects, LocalCan’s per-seat model likely works out cheaper at scale.

Try it at localcan.com, or read the full docs at localcan.com/docs.