head to head · open source
caddy vs FastTunnel
caddy has 77,495 GitHub stars, 5,098 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. FastTunnel has 1,702 stars, 341 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 22 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 4,453% (77,495 vs 1,702 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; FastTunnel is written in C# under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, FastTunnel 20%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | FastTunnel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C# |
| Last push | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 341 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 77K 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 FastTunnel if
- You want the FastTunnel 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 FastTunnel 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 FastTunnel
FastTunnel is a cross platform intranet penetration framework written in C that lets developers and operators expose services running on machines behind NAT to the public internet.
read the full FastTunnel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or FastTunnel more popular?
caddy has 77,495 GitHub stars and FastTunnel has 1,702. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and FastTunnel free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FastTunnel under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and FastTunnel?
caddy is written in Go and FastTunnel 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 FastTunnel?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (77,495 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose FastTunnel if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.