head to head · open source
caddy vs coredns
caddy has 75,840 GitHub stars, 4,970 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. coredns has 14,329 stars, 2,532 forks, 282 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 429% (75,840 vs 14,329 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 | ★ 76K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 2.5K |
| 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 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
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 coredns
CoreDNS is a CNCF graduated DNS server and forwarder written in Go that resolves queries through a chain of plugins, aimed at platform and infrastructure engineers who run DNS for Kubernetes clusters, service discovery, or authoritative zones and need to extend its behaviour without forking the core.
read the full coredns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or coredns more popular?
caddy has 75,840 GitHub stars and coredns has 14,329. 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 (75,840 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.