# Charles Proxy vs MQTTAnalyzer

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 chart position (#121 vs unranked) and ratings volume (187 vs 22). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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.

## The numbers

| Metric | Charles Proxy | MQTTAnalyzer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $8.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.0 (187 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/charles-proxy/id1134218562/reviews) | **[4.5 (22 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mqttanalyzer/id1493015317/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **187** | 22 |
| Positive reviews | 51.9% of reviews | **77.8% of reviews** |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Every 5 days** |
| Monetization | Paid | **Free** |
| Best chart rank | **#121** | — |
| Size | 20 MB | 12 MB |
| Requires iOS | **17.0** | 18.0 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | **iPhone, iPad, Mac** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [XK72 Limited](https://appshunter.io/developer/284393209) | [Philipp Arndt](https://appshunter.io/developer/1493015316) |

## What reviewers say

### Charles Proxy

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/charles-proxy/id1134218562)

**Currently charting:** #121 Top Paid · Utilities (US App Store)

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.

**Highlights:** 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

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Great tool for developers
- 👍 Useful for debugging
- 🔒 SSL proxying works
- 💡 Convenient to use on mobile

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Stability issues, crashes
- 🐛 SSL certificate not trusted
- 🐛 Doesn't handle gzip compression
- 🐛 Slow performance compared to desktop

**Reported bugs**

- 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**

- 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

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mqttanalyzer/id1493015317)

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.

**Highlights:** 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

**Features:** Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Charles Proxy free?

Charles Proxy costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.

### Is MQTTAnalyzer free?

MQTTAnalyzer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, Charles Proxy or MQTTAnalyzer?

MQTTAnalyzer is rated higher. Charles Proxy averages 4.0 out of 5 from 187 ratings, while MQTTAnalyzer averages 4.5 from 22 ratings.

### Do Charles Proxy or MQTTAnalyzer have ads?

Neither Charles Proxy nor MQTTAnalyzer shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Charles Proxy or MQTTAnalyzer?

Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, and MQTTAnalyzer every 5 days. Most recently, Charles Proxy was updated on September 30, 2026 and MQTTAnalyzer on September 21, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*