head to head · open source
caddy vs piko
caddy has 76,244 GitHub stars, 5,026 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. piko has 2,194 stars, 89 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 3,375% (76,244 vs 2,194 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; piko is written in Go under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, piko 4%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (golang, http, 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 | piko | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-03 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 89 |
| 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 piko if
- You want the piko feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and piko 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 piko
Piko is an open source reverse proxy and tunneling server in Go that lets you reach services with no public route by having them open outbound connections, and it is aimed at teams that need to serve production traffic or expose internal services from Kubernetes.
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or piko more popular?
caddy has 76,244 GitHub stars and piko has 2,194. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and piko free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and piko under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and piko?
caddy is written in Go and piko 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 piko?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,244 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose piko if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.