Charles vs Probe

Charles is a web proxy and HTTP monitor for developers who need to inspect traffic from browsers and other internet applications configured to use it. While recording is enabled, it captures and displays HTTP and SSL/HTTPS requests and responses, including headers, cookies, and caching information. SSL Proxying lets users examine HTTPS session contents. They can repeat or edit requests, intercept requests or responses with breakpoints, replay traffic, mock responses, inspect WebSockets, and chain proxies. Bandwidth throttling and added latency simulate slower connections. Charles presents JSON, JSON-RPC, and SOAP in a simplified tree format and supports Flash Remoting AMF0 and AMF3. Its iOS app captures HTTP and HTTPS traffic and can share requests or sessions with desktop Charles. Captured data is stored on the user's computer; Charles says its developers cannot access it. The software runs on iOS, Linux, macOS, and Windows. There is no free plan; a 30-day trial is available. Individual licenses start at $30, paid once for 10+ users, while 1–4 licenses cost $50 as a one-time purchase.

Probe is a local HTTP/HTTPS proxy and API client for examining application traffic, editing requests and responses, creating mocks, and automating requests. It can capture traffic from phones, simulators, desktop apps, and terminal clients, then show headers, bodies, and timing. Breakpoints let users pause a request or response, change its headers or body, and continue or abort it. Map Local serves a local file or inline body for matching URLs; Map Remote forwards them to another host. Visual flows can chain requests, extract values, check results, branch, and loop, and run in the app, through REST API or MCP, or with a headless CLI. The API client supports HTTP and GraphQL, collections, environments, authentication, and history. It imports cURL or Postman and exports to Postman v2.1. Probe also includes an MCP server for compatible clients and file browsing and transfers over SFTP, FTP/FTPS, S3, and WebDAV. It is available for Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and API use. The free plan costs nothing.