Charles Proxy

I don't have elaborate needs and have used Charles for many years. A few years ago I switched to https://proxyman.com and found it easier to use.

One hidden gem.

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)

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.

https://www.telerik.com/fiddler

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.

Wait why is this on the front page? I thought this is a very established and well-known tool

Wow. Charles was indispensable tool for working with HTTP apis back when I got started as an iOS dev in 2011. Great to see it still going strong.

I’ve found tools like Charles really useful for understanding what’s happening on the wire. When I need something more repeatable (tests, offline work), I usually reach for a mock server instead. I ended up building a small one for my own use and later open-sourced it:

https://dhuan.github.io/mock/latest/examples.html

I found Charles Proxy last year and it's fantastic. They have a mobile app too (if you need the ssl proxying for mobile apps).

I am a Burp guy, but lately Caido[1] has been trending, pretty lightweight and can be ran in headless mode. It's still very security-oriented (as Burp Suite is), but might be worth your time, notably as you can run it on a VPS/container to proxy all your traffic through it (which is by-design, contrary to my beloved burp/zap)

[1] https://caido.io/

Alltime great software

I’m on proxyman https://proxyman.com/

Used it heavily as my AS3 dev times from 2008 to 2011. Crazy that is still around.

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 like Burp Suite better for intercept and Squid better for a persistent proxy but maybe I'll give Charles another shot.

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.

This one is truly a gem:

https://httptoolkit.com

It even bypasses SSL pinning on Android using 1 click.

How come a reverse-proxy, better than the network tab in dev tools ?

More narrow cmdline http inspection tool https://github.com/signeen/inspect-http-proxy

Just upgraded my license today, so I guess Charles is my new Baader-Meinhof token. Great tool! The ssl proxying is especially handy.

Tool that can't be beaten

How does "Zed Attack Proxy" (ZAP - https://www.zaproxy.org/) which is opensource and part of OWASP (https://owasp.org/www-community/Free_for_Open_Source_Applica...) compare with this and other similar proxies?

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.

Even after using it for years I could never recognize all its unlabeled icons without hovering for tooltip

I emailed the author about it a decade ago but he didn’t seem convinced

Even better SIP bullshit off kext tap nic mitm intermed. certs. Fuck all the phone home stuff it’s enough.

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.

-frontend developer