Charles Proxy
28 comments
·December 20, 2025hboon
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.
ChrisMarshallNY
Pretty nice.
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.
jshier
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.
ChrisMarshallNY
Cool. I appreciate the tip. I’ll give it a go.
Thanks!
sgt
Looks much better, thanks for that tip
cientifico
That it's an osx ONLY app.
cientifico
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)
efortis
Burp is free too (community edition)
logicuce
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.
_blackhawk_
This. I tell people tales of that beautiful tool. have you found anything for a MacOS? My hunt so far has been futile.
swaraj
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
DrBenCarson
Alltime great software
I’m on proxyman https://proxyman.com/
jibcage
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).
followben
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.
infomaniac
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
sponno
i just texted Karl to say he’s on the front page of HN. I was the same. Charles was soo good for ol AMF!! Still miss Flash.
aua
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).
thunderbong
Didn't know about that.
eddywebs
How come a reverse-proxy, better than the network tab in dev tools ?
efortis
You can do more, e.g., changing the status code
tgma
More narrow cmdline http inspection tool https://github.com/signeen/inspect-http-proxy
el_benhameen
Just upgraded my license today, so I guess Charles is my new Baader-Meinhof token. Great tool! The ssl proxying is especially handy.
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.