Comparison

Charles Proxy vs FireHydrant

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

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
Currently charting
Read full description

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

About

FireHydrant

This platform streamlines incident response for teams, enabling faster resolution and learning. It provides automated runbooks, scribe tools, and analytics to improve products and processes.

Highlights
  • Incident notification with push alerts
  • Automated incident assembly
  • Step-by-step automated runbooks
  • Built-in scribe tools
  • Guided retro templates
  • Customizable analytics
  • Jira ticket assignment
Read full description

FireHydrant is the only comprehensive reliability platform that allows teams to achieve reliability at scale by creating speed and consistency across the entire incident response lifecycle. Our solutions allow developers to resolve, learn, and mitigate incidents faster so they can focus on what matters most: keeping business operations running smoothly and the customers their businesses serve, happy. FireHydrant for iOS allows you to: Get Notified Be alerted of critical incidents with push notifications that can easily break through your Do Not Disturb settings – ensuring every alert gets acted on. Automate When an alert is acknowledged, FireHydrant helps you assemble the team more quickly and move straight into problem-solving by opening incidents directly from the app from an alert. Respond Preconfigured automated runbooks turn any engineer into a speedier, more confident responder with step-by-step guidance tied to your policies. Learn After the incident is over, use built-in scribe tools, guided retro templates, and customizable analytics to ensure learnings are captured. Plus, automatically assign follow-up tickets in Jira. Improve Iterate. Repeat. FireHydrant makes it easier to improve every step of the way, whether that’s your products, processes, or people.

Screenshots

Charles Proxy4 screens
FireHydrant4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: FireHydrant at Free against Charles Proxy's $8.99. FireHydrant also leads on rating (4.3 vs 4.0) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). Charles Proxy's advantage is review sentiment (52% vs 33%) and ratings volume (187 vs 8). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

FireHydrant is free to download; Charles Proxy costs $8.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

FireHydrant holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Charles Proxy has 187 ratings behind it against 8, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 52% of Charles Proxy's written reviews are positive against 33% of FireHydrant's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, FireHydrant every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Charles Proxy versus FireHydrant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCharles ProxyFireHydrant
Price$8.99Free — better
Rating4.0 (187 ratings)4.3 (8 ratings) — better
Positive reviews51.9% of reviews — better33.3% of reviews
Number of ratings187 — better8
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#185 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size20 MB98 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperXK72 LimitedFireHydrant

Customer experience

Charles Proxy

All ratings187 ratings
Positive74.9%
Neutral5.3%
Negative19.8%
Written reviews231 reviews
Positive51.9%
Neutral11.7%
Negative36.4%

FireHydrant

All ratings8 ratings
Positive75.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative12.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

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

FireHydrant

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Charles Proxy

No in-app purchases

None

FireHydrant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Charles Proxy free?
Charles Proxy costs $8.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is FireHydrant free?
FireHydrant is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Charles Proxy or FireHydrant?
FireHydrant is rated higher. Charles Proxy averages 4.0 out of 5 from 187 ratings, while FireHydrant averages 4.3 from 8 ratings.
Do Charles Proxy or FireHydrant have ads?
Neither Charles Proxy nor FireHydrant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Charles Proxy or FireHydrant?
Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, and FireHydrant every 3 weeks. Most recently, Charles Proxy was updated on October 10, 2026 and FireHydrant on October 7, 2026.

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