head to head · open source
caddy vs hestiacp
caddy has 78,819 GitHub stars, 5,235 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. hestiacp has 4,564 stars, 956 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped today. caddy leads on adoption by 1,627% (78,819 vs 4,564 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; hestiacp is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, hestiacp 21%. 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 | hestiacp | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 4.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 956 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 79K 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 hestiacp if
- You want the hestiacp feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and hestiacp fits your workflow better
About caddy
a project Every site on HTTPS Caddy is an extensible server platform that uses TLS by default. Releases · Documentation · Get Help Powered by Special thanks to: Warp, built for coding with multiple AI agents Available for MacOS, Linux, & Windows Menu Features Install Build from source For development With version information and/or plugins Quick start Overview Full documentation Getting help About Features Easy configuration with the Caddyfile Powerful configuration with its native JSON config Dynamic configuration with the JSON API Config adapters if you don't like JSON Automatic HTTPS by default ZeroSSL and…
read the full caddy overview →
About hestiacp
Hestia Control Panel Lightweight and powerful control panel for the modern web Latest stable release: Version 1.10.5 View Changelog HestiaCP.com Documentation Forum Welcome! Hestia Control Panel is designed to provide administrators an easy to use web and command line interface, enabling them to quickly deploy and manage web domains, mail accounts, DNS zones, and databases from one central dashboard without the hassle of manually deploying and configuring individual components or services. Donate Bitcoin : bc1q48jt5wg5jaj8g9zy7c3j03cv57j2m2u5anlutu Ethereum : 0xfF3Dd2c889bd0Ff73d8085B84A314FC7c88e5D51 Binance…
read the full hestiacp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or hestiacp more popular?
caddy has 78,819 GitHub stars and hestiacp has 4,564. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and hestiacp free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hestiacp under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and hestiacp?
caddy is written in Go and hestiacp in Shell. 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 hestiacp?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,819 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hestiacp if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.