Building web applications with Django is one of those experiences that reminds you why you fell in love with programming in the first place. The framework is elegant, powerful, and fast to set up. But the real struggle often begins when you try to show your progress to others. Your Django app runs flawlessly on localhost, but clients and teammates can’t access it unless you go through the tedious process of deployment, server configuration, or dealing with firewalls and router ports.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just share your local server instantly, as easily as sharing a link?
That’s exactly what you’ll learn here — how to make your local Django app accessible from anywhere using Pinggy, a tunneling tool that securely exposes your local server to the internet.
Why Django?
Before we dive into the sharing process, let’s take a quick detour. Django is a high-level Python web framework designed to help developers move from idea to product as quickly as possible. It’s known for its “batteries included” philosophy, giving you everything from database management to authentication right out of the box.
Some of Django’s best traits include:
- Security built-in: Protection against SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF attacks comes by default.
- Scalability: Whether it’s a small side project or something as massive as Instagram, Django handles growth gracefully.
- Clean design: With an ORM, templating engine, and admin dashboard, Django keeps your codebase neat and structured.
- A thriving ecosystem: Thousands of reusable packages make development faster and easier.
If you’re building a blog, an e-commerce store, or a full-scale data dashboard, Django gives you a strong foundation.
The Challenge of Sharing a Localhost App
By default, your Django server runs locally, at 127.0.0.1:8000 — meaning only your machine can see it.
That’s fine for solo development, but what about when you need to:
- Demo your progress to a client
- Let teammates test features
- Debug webhook integrations from external APIs
- Test your app on a mobile device
Normally, this requires deploying to a staging server, a time-consuming process that distracts from actual development.
Instead, tools like Pinggy can securely tunnel your local app to a public URL in seconds.
Step 1: Setting Up a Django Project
If you don’t already have a Django project running, here’s a quick setup process.
1. Create and activate a virtual environment
Virtual environments keep your project dependencies isolated:
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate # macOS/Linux
# For Windows (PowerShell)
# venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
You’ll know it’s active when your terminal prompt starts with (venv).
2. Install Django
pip install django
3. Start a new project
django-admin startproject myproject
cd myproject
Your folder structure should now include files like manage.py, settings.py, and urls.py.
4. Apply initial migrations
python3 manage.py migrate
This sets up Django’s built-in database tables.
5. Run the development server
python3 manage.py runserver
Open your browser at http://127.0.0.1:8000/ — you’ll see Django’s familiar rocket-ship welcome page.
Your local app is up and running.
Step 2: Sharing the Local App Using Pinggy
Now comes the part that makes this guide worth reading: taking your local app online.
While keeping your Django server running, open a new terminal window and execute:
ssh -p 443 -R0:localhost:8000 -L4300:localhost:4300 -t free.pinggy.io u:Host:127.0.0.1:8000
What this command does
Let’s break it down:
-
ssh -p 443: Connects to Pinggy’s server over HTTPS (useful for networks that block non-standard ports). -
-R0:localhost:8000: Creates a reverse tunnel, mapping your local port 8000 to a public endpoint. -
-L4300:localhost:4300: Opens a local debugger port to inspect incoming requests. -
free.pinggy.io: Specifies the Pinggy server to connect to. -
u:Host:127.0.0.1:8000: Ensures Django accepts the forwarded traffic correctly.
If all goes well, you’ll see something like this:
You can access the local server via the following URL(s):
https://random-string.a.pinggy.link
That’s your public URL — anyone can now access your Django app directly through it.
Step 3: Test and Debug
Copy the generated URL and open it in your browser or send it to your teammate or client.
Your app will behave exactly as if it were deployed on a remote server.
Pinggy also provides a web debugger at http://localhost:4300 that shows incoming HTTP requests, headers, and payloads in real-time — extremely handy for testing APIs or webhooks.
Advanced Features You Can Explore
Pinggy offers some additional features that fit perfectly into a Django workflow:
- Custom Domains: Map your tunnel to your own domain name for cleaner, branded URLs.
- Persistent URLs: Keep the same public link between sessions (available in paid plans).
- Web Debugger Integration: Monitor all HTTP requests without extra tools.
These features make local testing and collaboration smoother, especially for ongoing client projects.
When This Approach Shines
Using a tunneling service like Pinggy isn’t about replacing deployment; it’s about making development more agile.
Some practical use cases include:
- Showing live demos to clients without staging servers
- Testing payment gateways or webhooks that need public URLs
- Accessing your app from mobile devices for responsive testing
- Enabling team collaboration without complex network setups
- Debugging OAuth and API callbacks
In all these scenarios, having a quick, temporary, secure tunnel is a lifesaver.
Conclusion
Deployments are essential for production, but during development, they can feel like overkill.
With Django’s simplicity on one hand and Pinggy’s tunneling magic on the other, you can focus entirely on building and testing your app instead of wrestling with configuration files or hosting platforms.
The next time you’re preparing a client demo or testing an integration, remember: your localhost doesn’t have to stay local.
A single terminal command can turn it into a publicly accessible, fully functional web app, and that’s the kind of development flow every Django developer deserves.
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