Comparison

Surge 5 vs Developer Laboratory

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

Head to head
About

Surge 5

This advanced network utility allows developers to intercept, process, and forward network traffic. It offers deep control over connections, including URL redirection, local file mapping, and HTTPS decryption. Ideal for debugging and network analysis.

Highlights
  • Network connection takeover
  • Modify network requests/responses
  • Forward traffic to other proxies
  • Intercept and save network data
  • Decrypt HTTPS traffic
  • Rule-based forwarding
  • Ad blocking by domain
Features
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Surge is an advanced network toolbox and proxy utility. It is designed for developers and therefore requires professional knowledge to use. These four capabilities form the core workflow of Surge: · Takeover: Take over the network connections sent by the device. Surge supports both proxy service and virtual NIC takeover, capturing HTTP, HTTPS, TCP, and UDP traffic from any app — even those ignoring proxy settings. All features work on the cellular network. · Processing: Modify the requests and responses that have been taken over: URL rewrite, header and body rewrite, local file mapping, custom DNS answers, and JavaScript-based modification. · Forwarding: Forward requests to proxy servers, either globally or driven by a flexible rule system. Policy groups select the best server automatically by latency, availability, or learned connection quality. · Intercept: Record and inspect requests and responses, including headers and bodies, and decrypt HTTPS traffic with MITM. Highlighted Features · Proxy protocols: HTTP/HTTPS, SOCKS5, SOCKS5-TLS, HTTP2 CONNECT, TrustTunnel, Shadowsocks, Snell, Trojan, Hysteria 2, AnyTLS, and SSH, with UDP relay support. · Used as a WireGuard or Tailscale client, converting the L3 VPN into a proxy policy. · Rules based on domain match/suffix/keyword/wildcard, CIDR IP range, GeoIP, ASN, protocol, port, and logical combinations; reusable rule sets hosted locally or remotely. · Policy groups: manual selection, automatic latency testing, fallback, load balancing, and the self-learning Smart group. · Complete DNS suite: DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-HTTP/3, DNS-over-QUIC, DNS-over-TLS, and concurrent queries for the fastest answer. · Local DNS mapping (equivalent to /etc/hosts) with wildcards, aliases, and per-domain DNS servers. Switch your app between production and development environments without changing any code. · Decrypt HTTPS traffic with Man-in-the-Middle and a built-in CA certificate generator. · Record and display HTTP requests and responses with JSON, text, image, and video viewers for the captured body; album mode for the request list; pre-filter for capturing. · Raw L3 packet capture. · Scripting: extend Surge with JavaScript — modify requests and responses, write custom rules, customize DNS answers, and run scheduled tasks. · Block unwanted requests by rules with high-performance pre-matching. · Measure traffic usage and network speed on Wi-Fi, cellular, and proxy connections. · Remote Dashboard: observe and debug traffic in real time from a Mac via Wi-Fi or USB, including cellular traffic. · Surge Ponte: access your home or office network remotely via your own devices, with no third-party service involved. · HTTPS proxy protocol supports client-side TLS certificate validation. · Safari extension to add rules; widgets and Information Panel for quick control. · Sync profiles across devices with iCloud Drive or Dropbox. · Full IPv6 support, TLS 1.3, HTTP/2, and QUIC. · High performance and industrial-grade stability, suitable for intensive use. Surge does not provide any proxy or VPN service; you need to configure your own servers. You may read the online manual for more information: https://nssurge.com/support Terms and Conditions: https://nssurge.com/legal/terms Privacy Policy: https://nssurge.com/legal/privacy

About

Developer Laboratory

This app provides a collection of example code and UI components for iOS developers. It demonstrates various functionalities like app icon creation, image viewing, web page loading, and custom controls. Access the source code to learn implementation details.

Highlights
  • APP icon creation
  • Imitation of WeChat Moments
  • Web page loading
  • Custom UI components
  • QR code scanning
  • Facial tracking
  • Database operations
Features
Read full description

iOS Technical Sharing (APP icon creation, imitation of WeChat Moments, imitation of WeChat image viewer, preventing @mentions on Sina Weibo, imitation of Alipay password prompt, imitation of Post Circle, tags, JS interaction + WK, loading web pages, adaptive cell height, embedding video player in TableView to prevent lag, custom beautiful popups, address selection, time selection, color selection, custom navigation control, carousel, QR code scanning, facial tracking, custom camera, ID card photo capture, iOS media player, AVPlayer encapsulation, dropdown selection popup, Snake game, marquee, adaptive height for TableView, native image download caching, folder operations, database operations, third-party login, sharing, payment, Apple installation agreement, data transfer between apps, acknowledgments for support) https://github.com/HansenCCC/YPLaboratory YPLaboratory is the source code for this project. If you want to see how it's implemented, you can click to view the source code. https://github.com/HansenCCC/YPUIKit-ObjC YPUIKit-ObjC is the framework for this project, providing many out-of-the-box functionalities. It includes in-app purchases, subscriptions, prompt dialogs, app info, user agent retrieval, device info, unique identifiers (persistent even after deletion), badges, useful buttons, common categories, MD5, hooks, regular expressions, hashed colors, image matrices, black-and-white images, base64 images, navigation settings, handy input fields, file management, floating draggable buttons, single-line input, multi-line input, loading dialogs, custom dialogs, local logs, marquee, waterfall flow, carousel, image preview, and more.

Screenshots

Surge 54 screens
Developer Laboratory3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Surge 5 at Free against Developer Laboratory's $0.99. Surge 5 also leads on ratings volume (994 vs 6) and chart position (#6 vs unranked). Developer Laboratory's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.1) and review sentiment (60% vs 51%). On update cadence, 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

Surge 5 is free to download; Developer Laboratory costs $0.99 up front. Surge 5 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $14.99 per year and Developer Laboratory sells 8 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Developer Laboratory holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Surge 5 has 994 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 51% of Surge 5's written reviews are positive against 60% of Developer Laboratory's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Surge 5 ships an update every 5 weeks, Developer Laboratory monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Surge 5 versus Developer Laboratory: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSurge 5Developer Laboratory
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.1 (994 ratings)4.7 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews51.5% of reviews60.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings994 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#6 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple TViPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size81 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSurge Networks Inc.恒盛 程

Customer experience

Surge 5

All ratings994 ratings
Positive77.1%
Neutral2.4%
Negative20.5%
Written reviews447 reviews
Positive51.5%
Neutral4.3%
Negative44.3%

Developer Laboratory

All ratings6 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral40.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Surge 5

Subscriptions1
  • Feature Subscription$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Surge Pro$49.99
8 purchases

Developer Laboratory

One-time8
  • 0 ice cola$0.99
  • 1 ice cola$0.99
  • A sip of iced cola$0.99
Show 5 more
  • 一元商品$0.99
  • 2 ice cola$1.99
  • 3 ice cola$2.99
  • 4.16 ice cola$3.99
  • 16.5 ice cola$14.99

Questions

Is Surge 5 free?
Surge 5 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Developer Laboratory free?
Developer Laboratory costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Surge 5 or Developer Laboratory?
Developer Laboratory is rated higher. Surge 5 averages 4.1 out of 5 from 994 ratings, while Developer Laboratory averages 4.7 from 6 ratings.
Do Surge 5 or Developer Laboratory have ads?
Neither Surge 5 nor Developer Laboratory shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Surge 5 or Developer Laboratory?
Surge 5 ships an update every 5 weeks, and Developer Laboratory monthly. Most recently, Surge 5 was updated on September 22, 2026 and Developer Laboratory on September 10, 2026.

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