ThingProxy Alternative

What is ThingProxy?

ThingProxy is a free CORS proxy originally created for Freeboard.io, a dashboard platform for IoT devices. The service is explicitly designed for “small API calls” with strict limitations—100KB maximum for both requests and responses, plus throttling to 10 requests per second per IP address.

The service works well for its intended use case: IoT dashboards fetching small JSON payloads from sensors and devices. However, these constraints make it unsuitable for general-purpose web development.

ThingProxy Limitations

ThingProxy’s constraints are significant for most modern applications:

• 100KB limit: A single API response larger than 100KB will fail
• 10 req/sec throttling: Limits concurrent users on shared IPs
• No POST support: Limited to GET requests
• No guarantees: Free service with no uptime promises

ThingProxy vs CorsProxy.io

For anything beyond simple IoT dashboards, CorsProxy.io provides necessary capabilities:

Size Limits: ThingProxy caps at 100KB. CorsProxy.io handles responses up to 10MB on free tier, with higher limits on paid plans.

Method Support: ThingProxy focuses on GET. CorsProxy.io supports GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and custom headers.

Production Ready: ThingProxy is experimental. CorsProxy.io offers 99.99% uptime SLA with global infrastructure.

// ThingProxy (limited use case)
const response = await fetch(
  `https://thingproxy.freeboard.io/fetch/${targetUrl}`
);
// Works only if response < 100KB

// CorsProxy.io (production ready)
const response = await fetch(
  `https://corsproxy.io/?url=${encodeURIComponent(targetUrl)}`
);
// Handles larger payloads reliably

Comparison Table

When ThingProxy Makes Sense

ThingProxy is appropriate for:

• Personal IoT dashboards
• Hobby projects with tiny payloads
• Quick prototypes during development
• Situations where 100KB is always sufficient

When to Use CorsProxy.io Instead

Switch to CorsProxy.io when:

• Your API responses exceed 100KB
• You need POST/PUT/DELETE methods
• You’re building production applications
• You need reliability guarantees
• You have multiple users/concurrent requests