head to head · open source
caddy vs acme-dns
caddy has 78,911 GitHub stars, 5,250 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. acme-dns has 2,874 stars, 307 forks, 192 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 2,646% (78,911 vs 2,874 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; acme-dns is written in Go under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, acme-dns 11%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| caddy | acme-dns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 2.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-06-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 307 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 79K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick acme-dns if
- You want the acme-dns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and acme-dns fits your workflow better
About caddy
a project Every site on HTTPS Caddy is an extensible server platform that uses TLS by default. Releases · Documentation · Get Help Powered by Special thanks to: Warp, built for coding with multiple AI agents Available for MacOS, Linux, & Windows Menu Features Install Build from source For development With version information and/or plugins Quick start Overview Full documentation Getting help About Features Easy configuration with the Caddyfile Powerful configuration with its native JSON config Dynamic configuration with the JSON API Config adapters if you don't like JSON Automatic HTTPS by default ZeroSSL and…
read the full caddy overview →
About acme-dns
acme dns A simplified DNS server with a RESTful HTTP API to provide a simple way to automate ACME DNS challenges. Why? Many DNS servers do not provide an API to enable automation for the ACME DNS challenges. Those which do, give the keys way too much power. Leaving the keys laying around your random boxes is too often a requirement to have a meaningful process automation. Acme dns provides a simple API exclusively for TXT record updates and should be used with ACME magic "\ acme challenge" subdomain CNAME records. This way, in the unfortunate exposure of API keys, the effects are limited to the subdomain TXT…
read the full acme-dns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or acme-dns more popular?
caddy has 78,911 GitHub stars and acme-dns has 2,874. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and acme-dns free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and acme-dns under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and acme-dns?
caddy is written in Go and acme-dns in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, caddy or acme-dns?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,911 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose acme-dns if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.