head to head · open source
caddy vs goshs
caddy has 76,201 GitHub stars, 5,023 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. goshs has 987 stars, 58 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 7,620% (76,201 vs 987 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; goshs is written in Go under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, goshs 6%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (golang, http-server), 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 | goshs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 987 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 58 |
| 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 goshs if
- You want the goshs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goshs 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 goshs
goshs is a single binary file server written in Go for red teamers, CTF players, and developers who need more capability than python3 m http.server without configuring Apache.
read the full goshs overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or goshs more popular?
caddy has 76,201 GitHub stars and goshs has 987. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and goshs free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and goshs under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and goshs?
caddy is written in Go and goshs 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 goshs?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,201 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose goshs if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.