# exposedev/expose

A beautiful, fully open-source, tunneling service - written in pure PHP

Repository: https://github.com/exposedev/expose
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/expose
Homepage: https://expose.dev
Language: PHP
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: expose, tunnel-server, tunneling
Last push: 2026-07-09T14:14:25+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 88/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 91, release rhythm 77, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2332, "days_push": 55, "days_rel": 159, "gap_med": 15.0, "n_releases_24m": 11}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4568, forks 308 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:53.570027+00:00)

## What it is
Expose is an open-source ngrok alternative written in pure PHP that creates secure tunnels to expose local servers to the internet. It can be self-hosted on your own tunnel server or used via the managed expose.dev platform.

## Use cases
- expose my local dev server to the internet
- share a localhost webhook endpoint for testing
- self-host an ngrok alternative
- test Stripe or GitHub webhooks against my local machine
- demo a locally running app to a client
- tunnel through a firewall without port forwarding

## When to choose
- you want an open-source, self-hosted tunneling solution you fully control
- your stack is PHP and you prefer a PHP-based tool
- you need custom domains on your own tunnel server

## When to avoid
- you need a managed global network with minimal setup out of the box
- you require high-throughput production traffic tunnels
- you prefer tools in Go or Rust with single-binary distribution

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: networking, proxy, http-server
- domain: networking, developer-tools, web-development
- platform: cli, cross-platform, php
- tags: tunneling, ngrok-alternative, localhost-tunnel, self-hosted

## Member repositories
- exposedev/expose (main) score 88

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:53.570027+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:19:57.813308+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/exposedev/expose (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:53.570027+00:00, sha 42a37013647b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.