head to head · open source
caddy vs gdnsd
caddy has 77,707 GitHub stars, 5,113 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. gdnsd has 560 stars, 70 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 13,776% (77,707 vs 560 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; gdnsd is written in C under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, gdnsd 13%. 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 | gdnsd | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 560 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-05-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 70 |
| 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 gdnsd if
- You want the gdnsd feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and gdnsd 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 gdnsd
gdnsd is an authoritative only DNS server written in C, intended for operators who need high performance name service with geographic balancing and failover rather than caching or recursion.
read the full gdnsd overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or gdnsd more popular?
caddy has 77,707 GitHub stars and gdnsd has 560. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and gdnsd free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and gdnsd under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and gdnsd?
caddy is written in Go and gdnsd 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 gdnsd?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (77,707 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose gdnsd if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.