What is Charles Proxy used for?

Charles Proxy is an HTTP and HTTPS debugging proxy for developers to inspect, intercept and rewrite network traffic from apps and browsers. It is a good fit for debugging mobile app network calls and testing how an app handles modified responses.

How much does Charles Proxy cost?

Charles Proxy is a paid product with no free plan.

Is Charles Proxy open source?

No. Charles Proxy is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Charles Proxy include Requestly.

Can I self-host Charles Proxy?

Yes. Although Charles Proxy is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers.

What are some alternatives to Charles Proxy?

Charles Proxy competes with Proxyman and Fiddler. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Charles Proxy alternatives.

Charles Proxy: features, pricing and alternatives

About Charles Proxy

Charles Proxy is a commercial desktop tool for debugging HTTP and HTTPS traffic. It acts as a proxy between an application and the network, which lets developers see each request and response, and modify or rewrite traffic to reproduce bugs or test how an app behaves under different conditions.

Charles is proprietary software that runs on the developer's own machine, so there is no hosted or self-hosted server to deploy. Features such as SSL proxying, throttling and rewrite rules are documented by the vendor, and the tool is commonly used by mobile and web developers to inspect what their apps send and receive.

Key features

Inspects HTTP and HTTPS traffic
Rewrites requests and responses
Intercepts traffic from apps and browsers
Runs as a desktop application

Good fit for

→Debugging mobile app network calls
→Testing how an app handles modified responses

Tags: debugging-proxy; http-debugging; api-debugging; traffic-inspection; desktop-app; mobile-development

Charles Proxy: questions and answers

What is Charles Proxy used for?: Charles Proxy is an HTTP and HTTPS debugging proxy for developers to inspect, intercept and rewrite network traffic from apps and browsers. It is a good fit for debugging mobile app network calls and testing how an app handles modified responses.
How much does Charles Proxy cost?: Charles Proxy is a paid product with no free plan.
Is Charles Proxy open source?: No. Charles Proxy is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Charles Proxy include Requestly.
Can I self-host Charles Proxy?: Yes. Although Charles Proxy is closed source, it can be self-hosted on your own servers.
What are some alternatives to Charles Proxy?: Charles Proxy competes with Proxyman and Fiddler. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Charles Proxy alternatives.