head to head · open source
caddy vs angie
caddy has 76,201 GitHub stars, 5,023 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. angie has 2,576 stars, 113 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 2,858% (76,201 vs 2,576 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; angie is written in C under BSD-2-Clause. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, angie 4%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (http, http3, https, reverse-proxy), 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 | angie | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 113 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 76K 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 angie if
- You want the angie feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and angie fits your workflow better
About caddy
Caddy is a Go based, Apache 2.0 licensed HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 web server and reverse proxy that obtains and renews TLS certificates automatically by default, built for operators and teams who want every site on HTTPS without maintaining a separate certificate workflow.
read the full caddy overview →
About angie
Angie is a BSD 2 Clause web server written in C that acts as a drop in replacement for nginx, designed for operators who want to keep their existing configuration while gaining HTTP/3, built in ACME, and modern load balancing behaviour.
read the full angie overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or angie more popular?
caddy has 76,201 GitHub stars and angie has 2,576. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and angie free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and angie under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and angie?
caddy is written in Go and angie in C. 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 angie?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,201 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose angie if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.