head to head · open source
caddy vs AdGuardHome
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. AdGuardHome has 38,073 stars, 2,589 forks, 1,253 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 107% (78,660 vs 38,073 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; AdGuardHome is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, AdGuardHome 7%. AdGuardHome was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (golang, privacy), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | AdGuardHome | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 38K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 2.6K |
| 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 AdGuardHome if
- You want the AdGuardHome feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and AdGuardHome 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 AdGuardHome
Privacy protection center for you and your devices Free and open source, powerful network wide ads & trackers blocking DNS server. AdGuard.com Wiki Reddit Twitter Telegram AdGuard Home is a network wide software for blocking ads and tracking. After you set it up, it'll cover ALL your home devices, and you don't need any client side software for that. It operates as a DNS server that re routes tracking domains to a “black hole”, thus preventing your devices from connecting to those servers. It's based on software we use for our public [AdGuard DNS] servers, and both share a lot of code. [AdGuard DNS]: Getting…
read the full AdGuardHome overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or AdGuardHome more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and AdGuardHome has 38,073. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and AdGuardHome free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and AdGuardHome under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and AdGuardHome?
caddy is written in Go and AdGuardHome in TypeScript. 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 AdGuardHome?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose AdGuardHome if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.