head to head · open source
caddy vs netgoat
caddy has 78,330 GitHub stars, 5,168 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. netgoat has 902 stars, 50 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 8,584% (78,330 vs 902 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; netgoat is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, netgoat 6%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (reverse-proxy), 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 | netgoat | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 902 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-23 | 2026-10-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 50 |
| 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 netgoat if
- You want the netgoat feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and netgoat 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 netgoat
NetGoat agent NetGoat is a self hosted reverse proxy and traffic policy agent written in Go. It can run from a local YAML configuration, consume snapshots from the companion control plane, and continue serving the last known good configuration during an outage. [!WARNING] NetGoat is active alpha software ( v0.1.0 alpha.1 ; git tags going forward are v , see docs/release.md). The shipped configuration contains no routes. Review every upstream, use strong bootstrap credentials, and place administrative services behind authenticated TLS before exposing a deployment to the internet. Feature status This table is the…
read the full netgoat overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or netgoat more popular?
caddy has 78,330 GitHub stars and netgoat has 902. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and netgoat free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and netgoat under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and netgoat?
caddy is written in Go and netgoat 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 netgoat?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,330 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose netgoat if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.