head to head · open source
caddy vs coredns
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. coredns has 14,403 stars, 2,553 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 446% (78,660 vs 14,403 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; coredns is written in Go under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, coredns 18%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), 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 | coredns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| 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 coredns if
- You want the coredns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and coredns 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 coredns
CoreDNS is a DNS server/forwarder, written in Go, that chains plugins. Each plugin performs a (DNS) function. CoreDNS is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation graduated project. CoreDNS is a fast and flexible DNS server. The key word here is flexible : with CoreDNS you are able to do what you want with your DNS data by utilizing plugins. If some functionality is not provided out of the box you can add it by writing a plugin. CoreDNS can listen for DNS requests coming in over: UDP/TCP (go'old DNS). TLS DoT (RFC 7858). DNS over HTTP/2 DoH (RFC 8484). DNS over HTTP/3 DoH3 DNS over QUIC DoQ (RFC 9250). gRPC (not a…
read the full coredns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or coredns more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,403. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and coredns free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and coredns under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and coredns?
caddy is written in Go and coredns 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 coredns?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose coredns if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.