Proxyman vs Whistle

Proxyman is an HTTP debugging proxy for capturing, decrypting, and mocking HTTP(S) requests and responses. Its SSL setup allows inspection of traffic in plain text. Tools include breakpoints, Map Local, Map Remote, scripting, filtering, and request/response diffs; it also supports traffic replay, response mocking, proxy chaining, WebSocket inspection, and GraphQL debugging. Desktop versions run on macOS, Windows, and Linux, with standalone iOS and Android apps for capturing and inspecting HTTPS traffic on phones and tablets. Its MCP server connects debugging sessions to Claude Code, ChatGPT, Gemini, Codex CLI, and Cursor. The free evaluation trial has limited features and excludes WebSocket preview, mobile apps, and Network Extension. Standard costs $89, paid once, a one-time purchase for one seat, one active desktop device, and one year of updates. Team and company licenses require at least five seats. Team subscriptions include shared logs, workspaces, role-based access, management features, and 10GB of cloud storage per team.

Whistle is a free, MIT-licensed network debugging proxy for packet capture and traffic inspection. It supports HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS, and reverse proxying, and can intercept and modify network traffic. Users define rules to change requests and responses; the Network interface filters captured requests in real time, while Composer supports replay and editing. WebSocket and TCP request and response data can be inspected, transmission paused or ignored, and custom data sent through Composer. HTTPS decryption requires enabling HTTPS capture and installing Whistle’s root certificate. The desktop version provides a graphical interface for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Its command-line version is intended for headless Linux servers, Docker containers, embedded systems, and IoT devices. Mobile capture instructions cover iOS and Android devices configured to use the proxy and trust its root certificate. Plugins extend Whistle’s functions and can be installed, configured, updated, and removed; the software can also be added to a project as an NPM module. The integrated Weinre tool supports debugging webpages on mobile devices from a computer on the same network. Internal requests can use username and password authentication, while proxy request permission control requires a plugin or custom plugin.