Charles Proxy vs MQTTAnalyzer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Charles Proxy
Capture and inspect network requests and responses directly on your iOS device. Debug networking issues without needing a computer. View detailed metadata, headers, and bodies, and even transfer sessions to a desktop for further analysis.
- Capture network requests and responses
- Inspect metadata, headers, and bodies
- SSL Proxying for plain text viewing
- Measure network performance
- Block requests to specific hosts
- DNS spoofing
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Charles Proxy for iOS lets you capture, inspect and modify network requests and responses on your iOS device. You can view metadata, headers and bodies in the app, so you can finally debug your app’s networking issues without a computer. Charles Proxy for iOS is an app from the creator of Charles Proxy for desktop. HOW IT WORKS Turn Charles on when you want to start capturing. Charles captures your network requests and responses in the background while you test your app or website. Return to Charles to inspect the requests and responses. If you also have Charles on your desktop, you can transfer recorded sessions to your desktop to explore them on the big screen. Charles creates a local VPN on your device. All of your network traffic passes through Charles on your device, and then out to the internet as usual over either WiFi or Mobile / Cellular data. There is no remote server involved, and your data always remains private to you. FEATURES * SSL Proxying to view SSL requests in plain text * View and share request and responses bodies * Syntax highlighting for text request and response bodies * Measure network performance over WiFi or Mobile / Cellular networks * Block requests to nominated hosts * DNS spoofing
MQTTAnalyzer
Monitor and debug MQTT brokers on your Apple devices. Visualize data with hierarchical views, JSON highlighting, and charts. Publish messages, manage multiple brokers, and sync settings across devices. Free and open source.
- MQTT 3.1.1 and 5.0 support
- JSON highlighting and pretty-printing
- Time series charts for numeric values
- Connect to multiple brokers
- Full-text search
- Publish messages
- iCloud sync
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Monitor and debug your MQTT broker from iPhone, iPad, or Mac. MQTTAnalyzer is the essential tool for smart home enthusiasts, IoT developers, and anyone working with MQTT-based systems. Free, open source, and no ads. CONNECT WITH CONFIDENCE • MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5.0 support • MQTT and WebSocket connections • SSL/TLS with ALPN and server CA certificate validation • Username/password and client certificate authentication • Support for self-signed certificates • Predefined settings for AWS IoT • Connection diagnostics to identify issues quickly VISUALIZE YOUR DATA • Hierarchical topic tree view • JSON highlighting and pretty-printing • Time series charts for numeric values • ANSI color code rendering • Image viewer with pinch-to-zoom (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and more) • Hex viewer for binary payloads STAY ORGANIZED • Connect to multiple brokers simultaneously • Subscribe to multiple topics per broker • Full-text search across topics and messages • Unread message indicators • Statistics panel with message counts • Large payload support (10MB+) with export PUBLISH AND CONTROL • Publish messages with QoS and retain flag • JSON message builder with form interface • Delete retained messages from broker • Siri shortcuts for quick actions SYNC ACROSS DEVICES • iCloud sync for settings and certificates • Native experience on iPhone, iPad, and Mac Have feedback or feature requests? Visit our GitHub page — MQTTAnalyzer is open source and community-driven.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: MQTTAnalyzer at Free against Charles Proxy's $8.99. MQTTAnalyzer also leads on rating (4.5 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 5 days vs every 2 months). Charles Proxy's advantage is ratings volume (187 vs 22). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
MQTTAnalyzer is free to download; Charles Proxy costs $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
MQTTAnalyzer holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Charles Proxy has 187 ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 52% of Charles Proxy's written reviews are positive against 78% of MQTTAnalyzer's.
Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, MQTTAnalyzer every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Charles Proxy | MQTTAnalyzer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $8.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.0 (187 ratings) | 4.5 (22 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 51.9% of reviews | 77.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 187 — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 20 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | XK72 Limited | Philipp Arndt |
Customer experience
Charles Proxy
MQTTAnalyzer
Bugs and requests
Charles Proxy
Reported bugs
4 issues- Doesn't work with latest iOS versions
- Fails to export sessions frequently
- Incompatible with apps using VPN
- Large JSON bodies not displayed properly
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to edit and replay requests
- Improve JSON viewer and formatting
- Add support for WebSockets
- Provide option to map to local
- Add scripting and breakpoint features
MQTTAnalyzer
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Charles Proxy
No in-app purchases
MQTTAnalyzer
No in-app purchases









