head to head · open source
caddy vs nps
caddy has 78,203 GitHub stars, 5,166 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nps has 1,089 stars, 156 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 7,081% (78,203 vs 1,089 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; nps is written in Go under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, nps 14%. nps was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, http), 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 | nps | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 156 |
| 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 nps if
- You want the nps feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and nps 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 nps
NPS Enhanced An enhanced and actively maintained NAT traversal and reverse proxy system with Web UI. ⭐️ Give us a star on GitHub if you like it! 中文文档 Introduction NPS is a lightweight and efficient NAT traversal and reverse proxy system for exposing services behind NAT or firewalls. It supports multiple protocols such as TCP, UDP, HTTP, HTTPS, and SOCKS5, and provides a Web management interface for convenient deployment and monitoring. Based on the original NPS project, NPS Enhanced has evolved into an actively maintained and extensively improved edition with continuous refactoring, better stability, and many…
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or nps more popular?
caddy has 78,203 GitHub stars and nps has 1,089. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and nps free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nps under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and nps?
caddy is written in Go and nps 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 nps?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,203 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nps if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.