Proxyman is 100x value for 2x the price. I am not even kidding. Native UI, shortcuts, cert installation helper tools. And script editor to programmatically edit requests is so much better and powerful than Charles' request editor.
I've moved to Proxygen app long time ago. Offers the same core functionality plus some unique features for half the price. And it has an amazing iOS app.
If the devs behind Charles would just tweak their UI a bit, it would be the absolute perfect tool. Functionally it pretty much already is. Mainly being able to turn on and off and configuring features I use all the time (rewrite, map local, map remote) is always a journey through menu's that don't always make sense. The only functional thing I'm missing is some DNS stuff (e.g. throttling or breaking DNS specifically).
I tried using proxyman for a while, and while definitely powerful and more modern, it honestly didn't feel "better" or more powerful so I didn't go for yet another license.
Likewise. I was a dedicated user of Charles for about a decade. It’s great, but if you are a macOS user, Proxyman is better, easier, and more macOS friendly.
It makes working with Xcode simulators even easier by having a dedicated UI workflow to install the proxy certificates and restart the sim.
I used to face issues from time to time doing this with Charles having to restart my machine at times and not getting the certificates to work.
Proxyman makes this way nicer to work with and since switching I never faced certificate issues again.
Not trying to do an ad, but really glad I don‘t have to think about that anymore :)
Yes, Proxyman has great sim integration, including the ability to filter by apps within the sim. It's a far better macOS app than Charles, and I've never found it to be lacking a feature I used in Charles.
When I was still working with iOS, all of us on the team switched to Proxyman and found it much better than Charles. Developer experience wise that is (features, ui/ux, etc.) We ran into some issues with Charles and found Proxyman as the alternative. Don't remember the issues but we never looked back.
I feel obliged to mention Fiddler. The tool I loved almost 20 years back and felt like it came from future. IIRC it was/is more powerful than Charles. Fiddler was Windows only but at one time they had builds for other platforms in works. Sadly they got acquired which changed their roadmap, and I had also moved on from Windows.
Wireshark is extremely powerful and useful but it lives in a completely different category of tools. It's not a proxy so it can't modify traffic or inspect HTTPS [1], it's used to passively capture and analyze general network traffic and troubleshoot networking issues.
[1] without an elaborate setup, your program needs to be instructed to dump TLS encryption keys for Wireshark to read
I built a bad clone of Charles Proxy over the summer as part of another project (iOS VPN -> mitm with custom root certificate -> logging). It's surprisingly simple. It basically goes App -> Packet tunnel -> SOCKS -> a child process (I used https://github.com/AdguardTeam/gomitmproxy) to handle the sniffing and reencryption.
I wonder if AI is good enough to vibe code my horrible hacks into a full clone of Charles Proxy these days.
Annoying fact: Apple requires you to have a paid developer account to access the Packet Tunnel APIs. You can't even test it in XCode simulator because of how networking works in there. It's insane that I can't even develop for my own phone without paying an extra fee to Apple. The error message when you sideload without a paid account doesn't make it obvious at all and it took me a good day or two before realizing .
I was a daily user of mitmproxy, until they changed all they keybindings around version 2. Tried a couple of times to get used to the new “TMUX” style, but switched to Charles Proxy.
Have mitmproxy gotten any better in usability over the years?
Just based on the images, is seems to have the same problems?
Burp Suite can do much of this as well, but the intent feels different.
Charles is very much about observing and understanding raw HTTP(S) traffic with minimal friction, which makes it handy for quick debugging, mobile app inspection, or client-side issues.
Burp leans heavily into security workflows: interception, replay, automation, and attack surface exploration. That power comes with more setup and a more opinionated UI.
I’ve found Charles useful when I want visibility without switching into “pentest mode,” whereas Burp shines when security analysis is the goal.
I used Charles for a while and also jumped on the Proxyman bandwagon. It’s a slick tool and even works for remote debugging (i.e., an iPhone attached to your computer with a cable).
Proxygen (https://proxygen.app.) has this super cool way to pair its iPhone app with the Mac app, and then remotely inspect traffic from iPhone apps on the Mac. You do the pairing once and then just beam traffic over. Attaching cables feels pretty ancient compared to this.
I once used Charles Proxy to change all the game configs for Candy Crush Saga on my phone back in 2013 by intercepting and replacing the API requests - I made all the puzzles have 1-2 colors and infinite powerups. I guess they didn't care much about the security because I ended up spending way more time in the game
Fantastic software that I've used for over a decade. Interacted with Karl a few years ago about Adobe's AMF format; very generous with his time.
I was surprised to learn that it's over 20 years old! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Proxy
I loved Charles, I used it for many years. It only stopped when an update changed the UI in ways that were confusing, and also the chrome network tab really did everything I need in terms of inspecting requests / responses.
I mean, Charles Proxy was a great option perhaps 20 years ago, in a time when there weren't any native Mac apps around.
If you take a closer look at the HTTP proxy app space a lot has happened since then. We have many free open source apps like mitmproxy, information security focused tools like Burp Suite and many others.
I have taken a liking on a relatively new app Proxygen (https://proxygen.app). They've nailed their UI and the app receives constant updates. Their free version runs circles around similar apps like Charles and Proxyman which aren't that great value these days.
Never learnt the use of this tool. The certificate configuration tripped my head during my work.
This gives brain damage because it doesn't make sense.
Why to check network payload when you are sure the data was sent.
https://proxygen.app
I tried using proxyman for a while, and while definitely powerful and more modern, it honestly didn't feel "better" or more powerful so I didn't go for yet another license.
Does it work for Xcode simulators?
I use Charles extensively (I am using it for the development I’m doing right now), and it needs to work on simulators.
Cost isn’t an issue for me. Fitness to purpose is important. I won’t cripple my development capacity, in order to save $50.
Not trying to do an ad, but really glad I don‘t have to think about that anymore :)
Thanks!
https://www.telerik.com/fiddler
The closest free alternative is https://www.mitmproxy.org/ that is not even close.
And off course, https://www.wireshark.org/ but that is too generic and with a bigger learning curve.
Worth the money. And no subscription (or there weren't a subscription back then)
[1] without an elaborate setup, your program needs to be instructed to dump TLS encryption keys for Wireshark to read
Did post the source somewhere at some point but my git server got corrupted and I haven't gone and fixed it. https://github.com/acheong08/apple-corelocation-experiments/...
I wonder if AI is good enough to vibe code my horrible hacks into a full clone of Charles Proxy these days.
Annoying fact: Apple requires you to have a paid developer account to access the Packet Tunnel APIs. You can't even test it in XCode simulator because of how networking works in there. It's insane that I can't even develop for my own phone without paying an extra fee to Apple. The error message when you sideload without a paid account doesn't make it obvious at all and it took me a good day or two before realizing .
https://portswigger.net/burp/communitydownload
Have mitmproxy gotten any better in usability over the years?
Just based on the images, is seems to have the same problems?
https://www.charlesproxy.com/documentation/ios/
I’m on proxyman https://proxyman.com/
If you take a closer look at the HTTP proxy app space a lot has happened since then. We have many free open source apps like mitmproxy, information security focused tools like Burp Suite and many others.
I have taken a liking on a relatively new app Proxygen (https://proxygen.app). They've nailed their UI and the app receives constant updates. Their free version runs circles around similar apps like Charles and Proxyman which aren't that great value these days.
https://httptoolkit.com
It even bypasses SSL pinning on Android using 1 click.
I emailed the author about it a decade ago but he didn’t seem convinced
Why to check network payload when you are sure the data was sent.
-frontend developer