head to head · open source
caddy vs FreeDomain
caddy has 77,650 GitHub stars, 5,107 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. FreeDomain has 2,258 stars, 31 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 3,339% (77,650 vs 2,258 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; FreeDomain is written in various languages under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, FreeDomain 1%. 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 | FreeDomain | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 31 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 78K 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 FreeDomain if
- You want the FreeDomain feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- You evaluated both and FreeDomain 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 FreeDomain
FreeDomain, also called Intent, is a non profit service that hands developers and creators permanent, free subdomains under shared parent domains such as .int.yt .
read the full FreeDomain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or FreeDomain more popular?
caddy has 77,650 GitHub stars and FreeDomain has 2,258. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and FreeDomain free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FreeDomain under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and FreeDomain?
caddy is written in Go and FreeDomain in various languages. 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 FreeDomain?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (77,650 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose FreeDomain if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.