head to head · open source
caddy vs DnsClient.NET
caddy has 76,244 GitHub stars, 5,026 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. DnsClient.NET has 880 stars, 149 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 8,564% (76,244 vs 880 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; DnsClient.NET is written in C# under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, DnsClient.NET 17%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | DnsClient.NET | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 880 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-03 | 2026-03-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 149 |
| 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 DnsClient.NET if
- You want the DnsClient.NET feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and DnsClient.NET 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 DnsClient.NET
DnsClient.NET is a high performance open source DNS lookup library for .NET developers who need to query DNS records programmatically from C applications.
read the full DnsClient.NET overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or DnsClient.NET more popular?
caddy has 76,244 GitHub stars and DnsClient.NET has 880. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and DnsClient.NET free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and DnsClient.NET under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and DnsClient.NET?
caddy is written in Go and DnsClient.NET 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 DnsClient.NET?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,244 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose DnsClient.NET if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.