Charlotte vs Charles Proxy
Charles is the tool a lot of mobile developers and QA engineers reach for by habit, and it has earned that. It is also a Java application that has looked and felt the same for a long time, and it costs $50 per user. Charlotte is a native app on both platforms it supports, costs $29.99, and exposes captured traffic to AI agents over MCP.
The short version
Both are one-time purchases, so this is not a subscription argument. It comes down to three things: whether you need Linux (Charles only), whether you want a native UI (Charlotte), and whether your coding agent should be able to read the capture (Charlotte only).
Side by side
| Charlotte.Pro | Charles | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29.99 once | $50 once, single user |
| Licence model | One-time, never expires | One-time; free upgrade to the next major version only if it ships within 3 months of purchase |
| Trial terms | 14 days, everything unlocked, then it locks the Pro features | 30 days, then sessions are capped at 30 minutes with a startup delay |
| MCP server for AI agents | Built in — 9 tools, read and write | Not offered |
| UI | Native — WinUI 3 on Windows, SwiftUI on macOS | Java / Swing, consistent across platforms |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Native ARM64 on Windows | Yes | Runs via the Java runtime |
| Account required | No | No |
| Telemetry | None — there is no backend | No cloud account required |
| Breakpoints, map & rewrite rules | Yes | Yes |
| Throttling / network simulation | Yes | Yes — long-standing strength |
| Protobuf body viewer | Built in | Via configuration |
| On-device AI traffic analysis | Yes, local models only | No |
| Session security audit | Yes | No |
| HAR import / export | Yes | Yes |
Charles pricing and licence terms from charlesproxy.com, read 4 August 2026. Multi-seat pricing is available. Verify before you buy.
When Charles is the better choice
- You work on Linux. Charlotte has no Linux build; Charles runs anywhere Java does.
- You already know it. A decade of muscle memory and a mountain of Stack Overflow answers are real value. Switching costs are not zero.
- You need one identical tool across three operating systems. The Java UI is the trade-off that buys this.
- Your workflow leans on a Charles-specific feature — the ecosystem of blog posts, recipes and integrations built up around it over the years.
When Charlotte is the better choice
- You use a coding agent. Charlotte's MCP server lets Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Cursor or Copilot search the session, open any request and replay or rewrite it. Nothing in Charles does this.
- You want the app to feel like the OS. Native WinUI 3 and SwiftUI rather than Swing — including proper dark mode, ARM64 and DPI behaviour.
- You want the audit. Charlotte can analyse a whole session and report cleartext HTTP, weak transport and exposed credentials, on device.
- You would rather pay $29.99 than $50. Same shape of deal, lower number.
Things Charlotte does not do
- HTTP/3 (QUIC) is not decrypted. It runs over UDP and cannot be intercepted by a TCP proxy. Charlotte can strip
Alt-Svcto force an HTTP/2 fallback so those hosts stay inspectable. - No Linux build.
- Much less history. Charles has years of accumulated edge-case handling; Charlotte's Windows app shipped in 2026.
- Certificate-pinned apps will still reject the intercepted certificate unless you exclude them — true of Charles too.
Charles is a trademark of XK72 Ltd. Charlotte is not affiliated with or endorsed by XK72. This page is a good-faith comparison written by Charlotte's developer; every claim about Charles comes from its own published documentation and pricing pages on the date shown above.