# Charles Proxy throttling alternative for iOS Simulator and Mac | Lagsmith

> Lagsmith vs. Charles Proxy for network throttling: throttle one app instead of everything through a proxy, without installing certificates, with Airplane Mode and failure modes.

Source: https://lagsmith.com/vs/charles-proxy

# Lagsmith vs. Charles Proxy for throttling

Charles Proxy is a long-standing HTTP debugging proxy, and its throttling is popular with iOS developers. If throttling is what you mostly use Charles for, Lagsmith is a simpler Charles Proxy throttling alternative: per app, no proxy and no certificates.

[Download for Mac](https://lagsmith.com/download)

|  | Charles Proxy | Lagsmith |
| --- | --- | --- |
| How it works | HTTP proxy: traffic is routed through Charles | Per-app network control, no proxy |
| Throttling | Throttles everything going through the proxy | Throttles only the apps you choose |
| HTTPS | Install and trust Charles’s root certificate to see HTTPS | Sees simulator requests with no certificate or proxy settings |
| Failures | Rewrite, map and breakpoint requests | Airplane Mode, refused connections, time-outs, dropped connections, outages that come and go, fail or mock one endpoint |
| Offline in the simulator | Not a device-like offline state | NWPathMonitor and SCNetworkReachability report no network |
| Physical devices | Yes, by pointing the device at the proxy | Mac apps and iOS Simulator apps |

## When Charles is the better fit

Charles is great for deep HTTP debugging: breakpoints, rewriting, mapping requests to local files, and inspecting traffic from physical devices. Many developers use both.

## When to use Lagsmith

-   You want to slow down one app, not everything going through a proxy.
-   You don’t want to install and trust a root certificate in each simulator.
-   You need real offline behaviour, time-outs and dropped connections, not only slow responses.
-   You want an AI agent or UI test to control the network.

Lagsmith exports requests as HAR, which opens in Charles. See also [Lagsmith vs. Network Link Conditioner](https://lagsmith.com/network-link-conditioner-alternative) and [Lagsmith vs. Proxyman](https://lagsmith.com/vs/proxyman).

## Slow down one app, not your whole Mac

Free to download, with a 14-day Pro trial. No account, no card. Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later.

[Download for Mac](https://lagsmith.com/download) [Compare with Network Link Conditioner](https://lagsmith.com/network-link-conditioner-alternative)