
Show HN: Instantly create a secure URL to your Mac - youngdynasty
https://emporter.app
======
SCdF
I have no idea what this product does.

> Instantly create a secure URL to your Mac

OK so like a URL to... what? Screenshare? Access the HDD like dropbox? Do
something else?

> Make changes in real time. Get feedback immediately. Effortless live
> previews.

Of what? About what? Of what?

> Nice cartoon picture of dog

/closes tab

 __Edit __: reading the rest of the page it 's still unclear what it does, or
even why I'd want it. I guess I'm not the target audience?

~~~
youngdynasty
Thanks for the feedback!

I was indeed trying to explain something technical (i.e. a tunneling service)
in a non-technical way in an attempt to be friendly towards designers, but it
seems like I still have some work to do on the product page.

~~~
noxxten
Try describing the process, that's usually what I look for at least when I'm
looking at products/services/apps (I'm a designer). Briefly walk through how
you can create a folder, throw files in, forward a domain/port, and then it's
public. The best product pages I've seen offer a short brief like your current
site does, but then also offers the very detailed technical bits behind a
"read more" button or accordion. Best of both worlds that way I think.

~~~
youngdynasty
Thanks for your suggestion! I was hoping to perhaps put together a short video
to show it off in action (it really is quite simple).

That said, it might actually be easier for me to use the "accordion" approach,
as you suggested, My video editing skills are pretty limited and this is
currently a side project of mine that's completely bootstrapped.

------
csomar
Am I the only one bothered by these apps/saas that hide their pricing?

>> No Subscription Required

>> The core version of Emporter is free.

>>

>> Subscriptions are offered to provide faster speeds, custom URL names,
multiple sessions, and super good vibes.

~~~
thecatspaw
From their mac store page

> Subscriptions provide faster speeds, customized URL names and multiple
> sessions.

• Monthly Subscription: 3 day free trial, then €5.99 a month • Yearly
Subscription: 7 day free trial, then €59.99 a year (15% off!)

A bit expensive for what localtunnel provides for free, no?

~~~
tapland
How can the free trials be different lengths depending on what paid package
you choose?

~~~
choward
Good question. This obviously isn't well thought out. Why not just do the
annual trial for 7 days? Would they seriously not let you sign up for monthly
plan after because of that?

~~~
youngdynasty
Thanks for your feedback... why not indeed? I've updated it within product
page (and In-App Purchases). It'll probably take a little bit for the
description in the App Store to update, though.

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malaya_zemlya
If you don't want to install any third-party apps, you can do much the same by
spinning up an AWS box and using SSH remote port forwarding

    
    
       ssh -NT -R 0:localhost:80 youraccount@yourbox.amazonaws.com
    

I also do an extra step and put an nginx proxy in front to translate hostnames
into correct port numbers, but that's optional.

~~~
mcgwiz
Same, with Apache. We leave our reverse proxy up 24/7\. Relevant Apache
config:

    
    
        RewriteEngine on
    
        RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} =websocket [NC]
        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]*).*$ [NC]
        RewriteRule /(.*) ws://localhost:%1/$1 [P,L]
    
        RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} !=websocket [NC]
        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]*).*$ [NC]
        RewriteRule /(.*) http://localhost:%1/$1 [P,L]
    
        RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^([^\.]*).*$ [NC]
        RewriteRule ^ - [E=TUNNEL_PORT:$1]
        ProxyPassInterpolateEnv On
        ProxyPassReverse "/" "http://localhost:${TUNNEL_PORT}/" interpolate
    

This reverse proxies something like
[https://12345.example.com](https://12345.example.com) to
[http://localhost:12345](http://localhost:12345), which is forwarded back to
the dev machine (typically port 80 or 3000). When a local server is spun up,
our tooling automatically sets up the remote port forwarding and appropriately
configures the local instance based on an environment variable. For a pre-seed
startup, this results in considerable cost savings w.r.t. ngrok's pricing.

------
ackfoo
Highly doubtful that I would ever buy any software sold on a monthly
subscription basis. The best parts of my life have been a result of avoiding
being tied to monthly fees. Without them, you are free to travel and move
about at will.

Monthly fees are a ball and chain thought up by corporations to create modern
slaves. Psychological and, to some extent, physical captivity.

~~~
jontayesp
The problem is not really subscriptions, it's being able to enter and leave a
subscription without hassle, something that is increasingly difficult these
days. If you're paying for an ongoing service, then it makes sense to pay a
monthly fee. But if you're paying for an app and don't expect significant
long-term upgrades, then yes, a one-time purchase makes sense.

In theory, iOS implements this well by allowing you to unsubscribe with one
click. In practice, it's a terrible UX. Just try finding the subscriptions
page in Settings and you'll see what I mean.

------
shubhamjain
How is it different from ngrok [1]?

[1]: [https://ngrok.com/](https://ngrok.com/)

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
From a cursory glance, I would say one thing is that there’s a GUI for it.
Some people are afraid of opening a terminal.

~~~
youngdynasty
Totally. I was thinking about designers when writing the interface and product
page.

------
nfrankel
* How is that different from ngrok ([https://ngrok.com/](https://ngrok.com/))? * If you target Mac developers, the first thing is to provide a Homebrew recipe IMHO

~~~
kypro
Yeah, I'm not sure why I'd use this over ngrok? Maybe if you're non technical,
but this is aimed at web designers... Seems like they have the wrong target
user to me.

------
turtlebits
Just a note that a lot of enterprises will likely block this app for security
issues - my workplace is fairly open (file sharing services are allowed) but
blocks ngrok.

~~~
youngdynasty
Hey, thanks for your feedback.

One of the biggest reasons that I decided to distribute on the Mac App Store
was to establish trust. If I embraced its limitations (i.e. sandboxing), it'd
help me build a product that was more secure and have some sort of proof that
it was.

Also, the company (me) behind the app is based in France, which has some of
the toughest privacy laws. The privacy policy, although in English, is
compliant with French law. The short version is that Emporter doesn't collect
user data, or perhaps most importantly, user content.

I have quite a lot I want to discuss about this via the company blog, which
ironically is part of the reason I decided to post a "Show HN". I wanted
contextualize the product a little bit before inviting this kind of
discussion.

------
mikestew
The hidden pricing is a tab-closer for me. I’m just not going to play that
game when it is not even clear what the app does.

~~~
youngdynasty
Thanks for your feedback! I can definitely see why that's a deal breaker.
Admittedly, I just thought people would be stoked that it was free to use and
download it.

~~~
mikestew
But here's the thing: if I _really_ like it, and you have any business sense
whatsoever, then I'm going to want a subscription. But if I don't know up
front what that subscription is going to cost, then I'm not going to bother to
download an app, figure out how it works, get really into it, and then find
out that the functionality I'm going to want long-term is $895/year.

It also makes me think you're not telling me for a reason. I guess I've
purchased too much "enterprise" software over the years. :-)

~~~
youngdynasty
I've updated the main page to include pricing. Thanks again.

------
elamje
I'm building my first web app right now, and understood what this did just by
reading the title of the post. Many people building web apps will understand
what you mean. It can't hurt to compare it against existing tech that does
similar things though.

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kodablah
If you don't need extremely high speed, this is really easy to do with a Tor
onion service. Granted the client needs to be a Tor browser, but there are
benefits to not having to deal with these third party services.

------
abhikarthick
Love this app!

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coding123
Username is new, is this really a show hn or an ad

~~~
ovi256
There's no rule that says that people new to HN can't do a Show HN.

~~~
youngdynasty
I admit, I'm usually a lurker :)

I have a few other things that I'm looking forward to sharing, though. I just
started with this because it will hopefully contextualize some of the other
content.

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xmichael999
Looks really cool, however the Mac store requirement is no a go...

~~~
alexchamberlain
Why is the Mac store a no go?

~~~
tefferon
iirc its the 30% cut they take from developers, some folks are really against
it and vow to boycott. I'm sure there's plenty of other reasons but thats the
first that comes to mind

~~~
scarface74
If the developer looked at the trade offs between using the Mac App Store and
decided to use it anyway, why should the customer care?

I would think just the opposite, I would be more inclined to use the App Store
that already has my payment information on file than pay an unknown developer
directly.

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huhtenberg
What's the reasoning behind adding saliva to the dog's tongue on the principal
image of the landing page?

It is so jarring and out of place that it's basically all I see there.

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spurgu
I have exactly one application installed from the Mac Store and that's
ironically Microsoft Remote Desktop viewer. This will not be my second one.

~~~
maxehmookau
Thanks for that deep insight.

