head to head · open source
caddy vs numa
caddy has 79,026 GitHub stars, 5,258 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. numa has 1,980 stars, 141 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 3,891% (79,026 vs 1,980 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; numa is written in Rust under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, numa 7%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (privacy, 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| caddy | numa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 141 |
| 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 numa if
- You want the numa feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and numa 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 numa
Numa DNS you own. Everywhere you go. — numa.rs A portable DNS resolver in a single binary. Block ads on any network, name your local services ( frontend.numa ), override any hostname with auto revert, and seal every outbound query with ODoH (RFC 9230) so no single party sees both who you are and what you asked — all from your laptop, no cloud account or Raspberry Pi required. Built from scratch in Rust. Zero DNS libraries. Caching, ad blocking, and local service domains out of the box. Optional recursive resolution from root nameservers with full DNSSEC chain of trust validation, plus a DNS over TLS listener for…
More in Infrastructure & Operations
Related comparisons
More Networking & Connectivity projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Networking & Connectivity field.
Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or numa more popular?
caddy has 79,026 GitHub stars and numa has 1,980. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and numa free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and numa under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and numa?
caddy is written in Go and numa in Rust. 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 numa?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (79,026 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose numa if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.