head to head · open source
caddy vs awl
caddy has 78,911 GitHub stars, 5,250 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. awl has 761 stars, 53 forks, 35 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 10,269% (78,911 vs 761 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; awl is written in Go under MPL-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, awl 7%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (golang), 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 | awl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 761 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-09 | 2026-11-08 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 53 |
| 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 awl if
- You want the awl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and awl 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 awl
Table of contents About Why Anywherelan Features Screenshots How it works Security Reproducible builds Installation The web UI Android Windows ( awl tray ) macOS Linux desktop ( awl tray ) Linux server ( awl ) Connecting devices Using devices as SOCKS5 proxy VPN gateway (full tunnel exit node) Configuration Config file location Example config Monitoring Terminal based client Common examples Upgrading Platform notes & known limitations Contributing License About Anywherelan (awl for brevity) is a peer to peer mesh VPN for connecting your own devices to each other, at the IP level, from wherever they are. A laptop…
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or awl more popular?
caddy has 78,911 GitHub stars and awl has 761. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and awl free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and awl under MPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and awl?
caddy is written in Go and awl 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 awl?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,911 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose awl if its feature set, stack or MPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.