Charles vs RAML: What are the differences?

What is Charles? HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy. Charles is a web proxy (HTTP Proxy / HTTP Monitor) that runs on your own computer. Your web browser (or any other Internet application) is then configured to access the Internet through Charles, and Charles is then able to record and display for you all of the data that is sent and received.

What is RAML? RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML) makes it easy to manage the whole API lifecycle from design to sharing. It's concise - you only write what you need to define - and reusable. It is machine readable API design that is actually human friendly.

Charles and RAML belong to "API Tools" category of the tech stack.

Some of the features offered by Charles are:

• SSL Proxying – view SSL requests and responses in plain text
• Bandwidth Throttling to simulate slower Internet connections including latency
• AJAX debugging – view XML and JSON requests and responses as a tree or as text

On the other hand, RAML provides the following key features:

• Create and pull in namespaced, reusable libraries, containing data types
• Annotations let you add vendor specific functionality without compromising your spec
• Traits and resource Types let you take advantage of code reuse and design patterns

Adorama, Freemake, and StellaService are some of the popular companies that use Charles, whereas RAML is used by Taboola, ikusei, and Anchnet. Charles has a broader approval, being mentioned in 16 company stacks & 13 developers stacks; compared to RAML, which is listed in 9 company stacks and 6 developer stacks.