Debugging proxies sit between an application and the network so a developer can read, pause and rewrite requests.
This ranking prefers small independent vendors and open projects, then looks at ninety-day setup effort, what licences cost as a team grows, whether captured sessions can be exported, and how well each tool suits mobile and desktop debugging.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What HTTP debugging proxy tools software does
An HTTP debugging proxy intercepts traffic between a client and a server, decrypts HTTPS with an installed certificate, and lets developers inspect, mock and replay requests while building and testing.
Every HTTP debugging proxy tool was judged on five points in a fixed order: setup effort, cost in practice, how data is exported, how easily you can leave, and the buyer it was designed for. A challenger rule applies on top. Places 1 to 3 are kept for lesser-known vendors when the category has them; large brands rank from 4. We explain on how we work why the tests are these five and why no product receives a score.
Desktop proxy sold as a perpetual licence for Windows, Mac and Linux
Ranked #1 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
Charles records everything between a browser and the internet and shows request and response contents, cookies and headers, with SSL and HTTPS support. Its connection simulator slows traffic so loading problems can be reproduced.
Licences are perpetual and scale from one seat up to site and multi-site tiers; a buyer past thirteen seats is asked for a quote because no price is shown. The same licence page offers a 30-day trial.
What stands out
Perpetual licence
30-day trial
Throttling
Where it costs you
Upgrades are charged at 40% of the original licence price once the three-month window has passed.
The vendor page gives no postal address or country.
Right for
Solo developers who want a one-off licence for a long-lived desktop debugger
Wrong for
Teams wanting shared cloud workspaces or a per-seat subscription model
Not stated by the vendorPerpetual licence published by seat count; paid upgrades; 30-day trial
Mac-first debugging proxy with iOS and Android seats in its Personal licence
Ranked #2 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
The pricing page lists a Standard licence for one seat, a Personal licence with two seats plus two mobile seats, and a Team plan with a five-seat minimum, available as one-time or yearly billing with ten gigabytes of cloud storage per team.
A bundle adds TinyShield and TCP Viewer. Students can ask support for an education discount. Companies are named in Delaware and Singapore, which makes the listed country the United States.
What stands out
Perpetual seats
Mobile seats
Team cloud
Where it costs you
The trial allows one debugging tools rule and excludes the iOS and Android apps and WebSocket preview.
Updates stop after one year unless the licence is renewed.
Right for
Developers debugging both a Mac desktop and phones from one licence
Wrong for
Anyone who needs to test the full product before paying
United StatesPerpetual licences and a team subscription, all published; trial with limited features
MIT-licensed interactive HTTPS proxy with command line, web and scripting modes
Ranked #3 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
mitmproxy inspects, modifies and replays traffic over HTTP/1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3, WebSockets and other TLS-protected protocols, and can decode formats from HTML to Protobuf.
Three tools share the engine: a command line interface, mitmweb with interception and replay in a browser, and mitmdump with a Python API for addons. Installers exist for Windows, Linux, Homebrew, Docker Hub and the Microsoft Store. Sponsors listed include NLnet and Proxyman.
What stands out
MIT licence
Python addons
HTTP/3
Where it costs you
Automation means writing Python addons, which costs engineering hours rather than licence money.
The project names contributors and sponsors but no company or country.
Right for
Engineers who want scriptable, auditable proxying inside tests and pipelines
Wrong for
Teams expecting a polished, click-through desktop experience from day one
Not stated by the vendorOpen source, MIT licence, with no paid plan on its site
Interception tool with an open source hobbyist tier and paid pro editions
Ranked #4 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingElsewhere
The free plan covers interception, raw inspection, filtering, manual rewriting and manually sent requests. Professional adds automated mocking and rewriting, reusable Modify and Send tools, advanced debugging, documentation and validation for more than 2,600 built-in APIs, and upstream proxies.
Team adds central billing and licensing, with bespoke licensing, self-hosted infrastructure and training on request. Automated rules, import and export are withheld from the free tier.
What stands out
Open source tier
Mock rules
HAR export
Where it costs you
Professional and Team prices are not shown in the page text, only a 25% yearly saving toggle.
Team workspaces are listed as coming soon.
Right for
Individuals who start with the free tier and add automation later
Wrong for
Teams that need shared workspaces available to use today, not later
Not stated by the vendorFree open source Hobbyist tier; Professional and Team billed monthly, amounts not shown
Capture and API tool with a device-limited community plan
Ranked #5 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Pricing has three levels. Community is free on every platform with one device, 100MB of cloud storage and four rule sets.
Premium costs a labelled yearly amount, tax included, with monthly, annual and lifetime toggles shown, and lifts the limits to six devices, 1GB and unlimited rule sets. Enterprise goes through sales. The footer carries a 2024 copyright for Reqable but no legal entity or country.
What stands out
Rule sets
Device limits
Cloud storage
Where it costs you
The Community plan allows one device, 100MB of storage and four rule sets.
Only the yearly Premium price is clearly labelled, and the currency is not named.
Right for
Solo users trying a capture tool on a single machine at no cost
Wrong for
Anyone working across several machines on the community plan
Not stated by the vendorFree community plan; premium billed yearly with monthly and lifetime toggles
Rule-driven proxy with plugins, run as desktop client or command line
Ranked #6 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Open sourcePricing on requestElsewhere
The site describes Whistle as a professional-grade network debugging proxy supporting HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS and reverse proxying. It includes the Weinre debugging tool and one interface for viewing captured packets, setting rules, managing plugins and debugging.
It can be extended through plugins or used as an NPM module. It runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, headless servers and Docker as a desktop client or command line version.
What stands out
Rule-based
Plugins
Docker
Where it costs you
Behaviour is defined through rules and plugins, which takes time to learn.
The site names a person in its copyright but gives no country.
Right for
Developers wanting rule-based proxying on headless servers, containers and desktops alike
Wrong for
Buyers needing a vendor, support contract or published price
Not stated by the vendorMIT-licensed open source project with nothing to buy
Request-modification tool sold per user to teams, with a long trial
Ranked #7 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Plans run per user per month with annual billing, with seat tiers of five, ten, fifteen, twenty and more than twenty users. Team Pro adds advanced test reporting, a secret scanner and vault integrations with HashiCorp, Azure Key Vault and 1Password.
Enterprise is an add-on with SSO, SCIM, audit logs, data residency or self-hosting. The trial runs 30 days with no card. The copyright belongs to BrowserStack, Inc.
What stands out
Per-user billing
30-day trial
Secret scanner
Where it costs you
No individual plan is listed, so a single developer still buys a team seat.
Seat prices stop at 20 users, with higher counts left without a price.
Right for
Teams that want per-seat billing and a month to test every feature
Wrong for
Single developers who want to buy one seat outright
Not stated by the vendorPer-user team plans billed annually; enterprise quoted; 30-day trial
Mac and iOS network toolbox that routes and decrypts traffic by rule
Ranked #8 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Licences are per device and include a year of updates. Rule matching covers domain, IP, GeoIP, ASN, process and port. Features include HTTPS decryption with the certificate installed automatically, rewrite and JavaScript scripting, an Enhanced Mode virtual network interface and Gateway Mode with DHCP.
An MCP server on its HTTP API lets AI tools such as Claude Code connect. The product targets Mac and iOS, and the developer's country is not given.
What stands out
Per-device licence
Remote dashboard
HTTPS decryption
Where it costs you
The homepage shows no price or currency, and the buy and pricing addresses returned an error.
Much of the feature set targets traffic routing, not debugging.
Right for
Mac and iPhone users who also want rule-based traffic routing
Wrong for
Teams on Windows or Linux needing a cross-platform debugger
Not stated by the vendorPer-device licence with a year of updates; amounts not shown; 7-day trial
Telerik's cross-platform proxy with many capture modes and enterprise controls
Ranked #9 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Pricing on requestNorth America
Seven capture modes are named, including a beta network adapter mode on Windows, and end-user machine capture on request. Protocols include HTTP/2, WebSockets, Server-sent Events, SocketIO, SignalR, gRPC, MessagePack and Protobuf.
Editing tools are rules, preset rules, breakpoints, API Composer and replay. A Fiddler MCP server connects AI assistants in IDEs, and a Debugging Assistant chats with a chosen LLM. SOC2, GDPR, HIPAA and ISO are named, and the address given is in Burlington.
What stands out
Capture modes
Enterprise controls
MCP server
Where it costs you
We could not read a price, because the pricing page addresses tried returned errors.
Hosting model is not stated explicitly on the page.
Right for
Corporate teams on macOS, Linux and Windows wanting audited tooling
Wrong for
Buyers who must see published prices before a demo
United StatesNot verified: the vendor pricing pages checked returned errors
Windows-only legacy debugger, free for non-commercial use under an EULA
Ranked #10 of 10 in Best HTTP Debugging Proxy Tools in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
The page calls it a Windows-only web debugging proxy and says it is in maintenance mode with community support only. Traffic Inspector shows HTTP and HTTPS sessions, Composer builds requests and AutoResponder mocks or changes them.
The free download is limited to non-commercial use under the Fiddler Classic EULA, and no free trial is described. Structured data names Progress Telerik at an address in Burlington, in the United States.
What stands out
Windows only
Non-commercial
Maintenance mode
Where it costs you
The licence covers non-commercial use only, which rules out most company work.
The page gives no commitments for releases, patches or technical support.
Right for
Hobbyists and students on Windows who need a no-cost inspector
Wrong for
Commercial teams or anyone who needs vendor support
United StatesFree download for non-commercial use only; no trial stated
An HTTP debugging proxy intercepts traffic between a client and a server, decrypts HTTPS with an installed certificate, and lets developers inspect, mock and replay requests while building and testing. What separates these products is rarely a feature. Work through the steps below.
01
Check who publishes a price
The split is 5 published against 5 quoted. If you want to compare numbers first, start with Charles Proxy, Proxyman, HTTP Toolkit, Reqable, Fiddler Classic.
02
Ask which country the contract runs through
2 regions are represented (Elsewhere 7, North America 3). A vendor outside your own legal area is not a problem as such, but it changes who can compel it to hand over data.
03
Check the open source options
3 of these are open source: mitmproxy, HTTP Toolkit, Whistle. Hosting one yourself trades a subscription for maintenance.
HTTP debugging proxy tools: one-off licence or subscription
Buying models in this market split sharply, and the split decides what the first year costs. Charles Proxy and Proxyman sell perpetual licences, and both limit what comes with them: Charles charges 40% of the original price for upgrades, while Proxyman includes one year of updates. Requestly and the team plans at Proxyman and HTTP Toolkit bill per seat on a subscription. mitmproxy and Whistle carry no price at all.
A subscription suits a team that wants central billing, but a lone developer may find a one-off licence cheaper over three years. Write down how many seats you will need, whether anyone needs mobile devices, and how long you intend to keep the tool, then compare totals across the whole period instead of headline prices, because the cheapest first month is rarely the cheapest third year.
Count seats and mobile devices before comparing prices
Note which updates a perpetual licence includes
Compare three-year totals for one-off and subscription plans
Open source or commercial: what Whistle and mitmproxy ask of you
mitmproxy and Whistle are both MIT-licensed and cost nothing, which makes them attractive for continuous integration, containers and headless servers. Both ask for more learning: mitmproxy automation is written as Python addons, and Whistle behaviour is described through rules and plugins.
Commercial tools such as Charles Proxy and Fiddler Everywhere give a graphical session list, a vendor to contact and release notes. Decide who will maintain the setup in a year, and whether a missing support contract matters to your organisation, because a proxy that nobody understands becomes a blocker the first time a certificate or a rule breaks during a release week.
Ask who will maintain scripts and rules next year
Confirm the licence text on the project repository
Check whether a support contract is needed for your team
Mobile, platforms and certificates in HTTP debugging
Platform coverage differs more than feature lists suggest. Fiddler Classic runs only on Windows and covers non-commercial use. Surge targets Mac and iOS, and its remote dashboard reads an iPhone over Wi-Fi or USB. Proxyman's Personal licence includes two mobile seats for iOS or Android, whereas its trial leaves the mobile apps out.
Charles Proxy names Windows, Mac OS and Linux, and Fiddler Everywhere names macOS, Linux and Windows. Reqable limits its Community plan to one device, which matters if you debug from both a laptop and a desk machine. List the operating systems and phones you test on before opening a trial, and check that the plan you intend to buy covers every one of them without an extra seat.
List every operating system and phone you test on
Check device or seat limits on the plan you plan to buy
Install the certificate on a test phone during the trial
Trials, limits and prices you cannot see
Several vendors make evaluation harder than it should be. Proxyman's trial offers one debugging tools rule and omits the mobile apps and WebSocket preview. Reqable's Community plan stops at four rule sets and 100MB of storage. HTTP Toolkit does not show Professional or Team prices in the page text, and Surge shows no amounts on its homepage.
For Fiddler Everywhere we could not read any plan price. Charles Proxy gives 30 days, Requestly 30 days with full Team Pro entitlements, and Surge seven days with every feature unlocked. Prefer a trial that matches the plan you will buy, and ask for written prices before committing a team, because a quote obtained after the proxy is rolled out leaves you with little room to negotiate.
Use a trial that unlocks the plan you intend to buy
Ask in writing for prices the page hides
Test your real traffic against each free tier limit
What goes wrong most often when buying HTTP debugging proxy tools software
Choosing a Windows-only tool such as Fiddler Classic and then discovering half the team works on Macs.
Treating Fiddler Classic's free download as usable at work, when its licence covers non-commercial use only.
Judging Proxyman by its trial alone, which hides the mobile apps and WebSocket preview.
Picking a scripting library when the team really needs a graphical session list and breakpoints.
07
Frequently asked questions
7 answers
What is the best HTTP debugging proxy tools in 2026?
Charles Proxy takes first place among the 10 we reviewed. Charles is built by XK72, which sells a perpetual licence through Paddle, so a single seat is a one-off purchase with no subscription to exit.
It records browser traffic, shows cookies and headers, handles HTTPS and simulates slow connections. It ranks first because buying, running and leaving needs nobody else. Upgrades cost 40% of the original price after the free window, and the page names no country.
Which HTTP debugging proxy tools publish their pricing?
Published pricing exists for 5 products on this page:
Charles Proxy: Perpetual licence published by seat count; paid upgrades; 30-day trial.
Proxyman: Perpetual licences and a team subscription, all published; trial with limited features.
HTTP Toolkit: Free open source Hobbyist tier; Professional and Team billed monthly, amounts not shown.
Reqable: Free community plan; premium billed yearly with monthly and lifetime toggles.
Fiddler Classic: Free download for non-commercial use only; no trial stated.
The remaining 5 sell by quote.
Is there a free HTTP debugging proxy tool?
mitmproxy, HTTP Toolkit, Reqable, Fiddler Classic come with a no-cost entry point, a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Where are these HTTP debugging proxy tool vendors established?
Vendor countries on this page, Elsewhere 7, North America 3:
Charles Proxy: Not stated by the vendor.
Proxyman: United States.
mitmproxy: Not stated by the vendor.
HTTP Toolkit: Not stated by the vendor.
Reqable: Not stated by the vendor.
Whistle: Not stated by the vendor.
Requestly: Not stated by the vendor.
Surge: Not stated by the vendor.
Fiddler Everywhere: United States.
Fiddler Classic: United States.
Which HTTP debugging proxy tools are open source?
mitmproxy, HTTP Toolkit, Whistle.
What should you use instead of Charles Proxy?
Second is Proxyman, which suits Developers debugging both a Mac desktop and phones from one licence. Third is mitmproxy, which suits Engineers who want scriptable, auditable proxying inside tests and pipelines.
Who should not buy Charles Proxy?
Teams wanting shared cloud workspaces or a per-seat subscription model. Upgrades are charged at 40% of the original licence price once the three-month window has passed..
If a HTTP debugging proxy tools product of yours deserves a place among these 10, say what it is and who it serves. Inclusion rests with us alone. See software advice for the rules.
