head to head · open source
caddy vs nginx-proxy
caddy has 75,847 GitHub stars, 4,970 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nginx-proxy has 19,914 stars, 3,044 forks, 327 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 281% (75,847 vs 19,914 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; nginx-proxy is written in Python under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, nginx-proxy 15%. 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 | nginx-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 20K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 3.0K |
| 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 nginx-proxy if
- You want the nginx-proxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and nginx-proxy 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 nginx-proxy
nginx proxy is an automated Nginx reverse proxy for Docker that watches containers start and stop and rewrites its own proxy configuration in response, and it is for anyone running containerised services who needs hostname based routing without hand editing nginx configuration files.
read the full nginx-proxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or nginx-proxy more popular?
caddy has 75,847 GitHub stars and nginx-proxy has 19,914. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and nginx-proxy free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nginx-proxy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and nginx-proxy?
caddy is written in Go and nginx-proxy in Python. 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 nginx-proxy?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (75,847 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nginx-proxy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.