What is Proxyman?
Proxyman sits between your applications and the servers they talk to, acting as a man-in-the-middle proxy so that HTTPS requests and responses can be read in plain text rather than as ciphertext. It is a native macOS application, and the vendor's selling point is that capturing from a Mac, an iOS simulator or an Android emulator takes a single click rather than manual certificate setup. Beyond reading traffic it can change it: breakpoints pause a request or response for editing, Map Local serves a file instead of a real response, and a JavaScript scripting tool rewrites messages programmatically. A free tier is limited to one debugging rule; the paid licences are one-time purchases. It suits developers debugging their own API clients and mobile apps.
Verified product facts
- Type
- HTTP debugging proxyEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Apple Silicon
- YesDeveloper-stated
- Pricing
- One-time purchaseDeveloper-stated
- Price
- USD 89Developer-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Current version
- 26.0.1Developer-stated
- Official website
- proxyman.com/
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What Proxyman does at a glance.
Acts as a man-in-the-middle proxy, decrypting HTTPS
For inspection in plain text
Breakpoint tool
For editing requests and responses in flight
Map Local serves a local file as the response, for mocking
Map Remote redirects requests to a different endpoint
Scripting tool
Rewrites traffic with JavaScript
Network Conditions
For simulating slow or lossy connections
Filters
With wildcard and regex support, plus full-text search
GraphQL debugging and live WebSocket inspection
Diff tool
For comparing requests and responses
HTTP/2 capture and inspection
Command Palette and built-in terminal app support
Runs natively
On both Apple silicon and Intel Macs, requiring macOS 14 or later
What you can use Proxyman for
- Seeing exactly what an app sends and receives over HTTPS
- Mocking an API response from a local file before the backend is ready
- Reproducing a bug that only appears on a slow or lossy connection
- Inspecting GraphQL and WebSocket traffic from a mobile app
Who is Proxyman for?
- macOS developers debugging their own HTTP clients and mobile apps
- Teams that want one-click capture from a simulator or emulator without certificate setup
Who is Proxyman not for?
- Anyone who needs an open-source proxy they can inspect — Proxyman is closed source
- Users who need the advanced debugging tools for free, since the free tier allows only one rule
Limitations
- The free tier limits debugging rules to one and omits the advanced tools
- Closed source, so the proxy implementation cannot be audited
- The iOS and Android apps require the Personal or Team licence, not the single-seat Standard licence
- Team cloud features such as shared workspaces and SSO require the subscription tier rather than a perpetual licence
Strengths and trade-offs
What Proxyman does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Captures and decrypts HTTPS traffic as a man-in-the-middle proxy, so requests and responses can be read in plain text.Developer-stated
- The breakpoint tool modifies requests and responses on the fly without changing client code.Developer-stated
- Map Local mocks a response from a local file with a chosen status code, headers and body.Developer-stated
- A JavaScript scripting tool rewrites traffic programmatically, with built-in snippets and libraries.Developer-stated
- Licences are perpetual: one payment with a year of updates, then the last version keeps working.
- Runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel, requiring macOS 14 or later.Developer-stated
Trade-offs
- The free tier is a limited evaluation, restricted to a single debugging rule and without the advanced tools.
- Closed source, so the proxy and its certificate handling cannot be inspected.
- The mobile apps are not included with the single-seat Standard licence; they need Personal or Team.
- Reading HTTPS traffic requires trusting a Proxyman root certificate, which reduces the security of the device while it is installed.Derived
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- A macOS disk image is published by the vendor; the site describes setup on macOS as built in rather than manual.
- First launch Derived
- No account is required to start; a licence key is entered to unlock the paid features.
- System integration Developer-stated
- Captures per application and per domain, and can also capture from iOS simulators and Android emulators.
- Apple Silicon Developer-stated
- Supported
What it does
Proxyman places itself between an application and the servers it calls, decrypting the connection so that HTTPS traffic can be read as plain text. That is the same job an intercepting proxy has always done; what the product is built around is making it quick to set up on a Mac and to point at a simulator or emulator rather than at a device on the network.
Reading is only half of it. The breakpoint tool pauses a request or a response so you can edit the URL, headers, body or status code before it continues. Map Local answers with a file on disk instead of a real response, which is how an API is mocked before the backend exists, and Map Remote sends a request somewhere else. For cases where the graphical tools are too slow, a JavaScript scripting tool rewrites traffic with your own logic and ships with snippets and libraries.
Reading traffic, and its cost
Any tool that decrypts HTTPS has to be trusted by the machine it decrypts on. Proxyman works by installing a root certificate, which means that while it is installed and trusted, a compromised Proxyman certificate could be used to intercept traffic. That is inherent to the technique rather than a defect in this particular product, but it is the reason an intercepting proxy should be enabled deliberately rather than left running.
Licensing
Proxyman is closed source and sold as a perpetual licence rather than a subscription. Standard is $89 for one seat and Personal is $99 for two seats, the latter including the iOS and Android apps; both come with a year of updates and keep working afterwards. Team licences are $99 per seat per year with a minimum of five seats, or $12 per seat per month billed yearly. The free tier is an evaluation: one debugging rule, and none of the advanced tools.
Questions about Proxyman
How much does Proxyman cost?
Licences are perpetual. Standard is $89 for one seat, and Personal is $99 for two seats including the iOS and Android apps; both include one year of updates and keep working afterwards. Team licences are $99 per seat per year for at least five seats, or $12 per seat per month billed yearly. Students can request 50% off.
Is there a free version of Proxyman?
There is a free tier, but the vendor describes it as being for evaluation with limited features. It allows only one debugging rule and omits the breakpoint, map local, map remote, scripting, diff and network conditions tools.
How does Proxyman read HTTPS traffic?
It acts as a man-in-the-middle proxy between your application and the server, decrypting the connection so that requests and responses can be inspected in plain text. That requires the device to trust a Proxyman certificate.Developer-stated
Does Proxyman work on Apple silicon Macs?
Yes. It is a native macOS application that runs on both Apple silicon and Intel Macs, and requires macOS 14 or later.Developer-stated
Alternatives to Proxyman
Apps that could replace this one — the same job, a different trade-off.
mitmproxy
Open-source interactive HTTPS proxy, scriptable in Python.
Both intercept and modify HTTP traffic, but mitmproxy is free, open source and scriptable in Python while Proxyman is a paid native Mac app with a graphical breakpoint workflow.
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Charles
Cross-platform HTTP and HTTPS debugging proxy.
Both are paid HTTP debugging proxies with HTTPS decryption and mapping tools, but Proxyman is a native Mac-only application while Charles is cross-platform and Java-based.
Works well with
Not a replacement — apps commonly used alongside this one.
Wireshark
Open-source network protocol analyzer with deep packet inspection.
Proxyman shows the HTTP requests and responses behind a connection, while Wireshark shows the packets underneath them across all protocols.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
- Proxyman — official websiteGrade B
