# Charles Proxy vs HelvetiKit

The clearest difference is price: HelvetiKit at Free against Charles Proxy's $8.99. HelvetiKit also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0). Charles Proxy's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (189 vs 1). On update cadence, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

HelvetiKit is free to download; Charles Proxy costs $8.99 up front. HelvetiKit sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Charles Proxy asks for nothing beyond the download.

HelvetiKit holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Charles Proxy has 189 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.

Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, HelvetiKit every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Charles Proxy | HelvetiKit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $8.99 | **Free** |
| Rating | [4.0 (189 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/charles-proxy/id1134218562/reviews) | **[5.0 (1 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/helvetikit/id6752776197/reviews)** |
| Number of ratings | **189** | 1 |
| Positive reviews | 51.9% of reviews | — |
| In-app purchases | **No** | Yes |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | **Every 6 weeks** |
| Monetization | Paid | **Freemium** |
| Best chart rank | **#109** | — |
| Size | 20 MB | 5 MB |
| Requires iOS | **17.0** | 18.5 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [XK72 Limited](https://appshunter.io/developer/284393209) | [阳 张](https://appshunter.io/developer/1832378186) |

## What reviewers say

### Charles Proxy

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

**Currently charting:** #109 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


### HelvetiKit

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/helvetikit/id6752776197)

A fast, on-device toolbox for developers, offering QR code generation and scanning, color conversions, JSON formatting, JWT decoding, and various text manipulation tools. It prioritizes speed and privacy with an intuitive interface for everyday development tasks.

**Highlights:** QR code generation and scanning, Color format conversion (HEX, RGB, HSL), JSON pretty-printing, minifying, and validation, JWT decoding, Text case conversion, UUID generation, Hashing (MD5, SHA-1/256/512), Base64 / URL encoding/decoding, Timestamp conversion, Regex testing and replacement

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

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Pro User | $0.99 | one-time |


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Charles Proxy free?

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

### Is HelvetiKit free?

HelvetiKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

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

HelvetiKit is rated higher. Charles Proxy averages 4.0 out of 5 from 189 ratings, while HelvetiKit averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.

### Do Charles Proxy or HelvetiKit have ads?

Neither Charles Proxy nor HelvetiKit shows ads.

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

Charles Proxy ships an update every 2 months, and HelvetiKit every 6 weeks. Most recently, Charles Proxy was updated on October 29, 2026 and HelvetiKit on October 28, 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.*