BrowserStackLocal for Windows

What BrowserStack Local Does

BrowserStack Local is a complimentary utility that creates a secure tunnel between your private or on-premises environments and the BrowserStack cloud. It allows teams to test sites and apps that are not publicly accessible—such as staging servers or services behind corporate firewalls—without having to publish them to the internet. This preserves security while enabling end-to-end testing across many browser and device configurations.

Setting Up the Local Connector

To establish the tunnel, download and run the BrowserStack Local desktop application or the platform-specific binary. Launching that client initiates an encrypted connection to BrowserStack’s infrastructure, routing traffic from cloud browsers to your local environment. The tool is available for common operating systems and can be started from a command line or script as part of your test workflow.

Integrating with Automated Tests

When running automated suites, enable the local tunnel by adding the appropriate capability in your test configuration (for example, setting browserstack.local to true). This tells the remote browser sessions to route requests through the active local connector so they can reach non-public endpoints. Include the access key and any project/session metadata required by your CI or test runner.

Troubleshooting Connectivity

• Confirm the local connector is actually running on the machine that should serve the tunnel and that it shows a successful connection in its output.
• Verify the browserstack.local (or equivalent) capability is correctly set in your test configuration and that the access credentials match your BrowserStack account.
• Inspect firewall, proxy, or network rules that might block outbound connections from the local binary to BrowserStack’s servers.
• Review the connector’s logs (enable verbose or debug mode if necessary) to capture errors and timing information that help pinpoint the failure.

Controlling Recordings and Privacy

If you prefer not to record video of test sessions, you can turn off recording by setting the related capability (for example, video) to false in your test settings. BrowserStack also provides options to control other session artifacts and retention, giving you flexibility over what gets stored or shared from test runs.

Other Tools and Options

If you want alternatives or complementary approaches for local testing and tunneling, consider established tunnel services such as ngrok or localtunnel, which also expose local servers securely for remote access. Note that some file-transfer apps like SHAREit are free but serve a different purpose and are not replacements for tunneling/testing solutions. Choose the tool that best matches your security, logging, and CI integration needs.