head to head · open source
caddy vs pdns
caddy has 76,005 GitHub stars, 4,991 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pdns has 4,473 stars, 1,026 forks, 932 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 1,599% (76,005 vs 4,473 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pdns is written in C++ under GPL-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pdns 23%. pdns 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 | pdns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 4.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C++ |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 pdns if
- You want the pdns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C++
- You evaluated both and pdns 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 pdns
PowerDNS (pdns) is a single C++ source repository containing three distinct DNS products — the PowerDNS Authoritative Server, the PowerDNS Recursor, and dnsdist, a DNS load balancer — and it is aimed at network and infrastructure operators who run DNS themselves.
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or pdns more popular?
caddy has 76,005 GitHub stars and pdns has 4,473. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and pdns free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pdns under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and pdns?
caddy is written in Go and pdns in C++. 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 pdns?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,005 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pdns if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.