head to head · open source
caddy vs hestiacp
caddy has 75,951 GitHub stars, 4,988 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hestiacp has 4,503 stars, 945 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 1,587% (75,951 vs 4,503 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 | ★ 76K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 945 |
| 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 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
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 hestiacp
Hestia Control Panel is a GPL 3.0, shell based control panel that gives Linux server administrators a web and command line interface for deploying and managing web domains, mail accounts, DNS zones, and databases on Debian and Ubuntu servers.
read the full hestiacp overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or hestiacp more popular?
caddy has 75,951 GitHub stars and hestiacp has 4,503. 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 (75,951 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.