head to head · open source
caddy vs pingap
caddy has 77,707 GitHub stars, 5,113 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. pingap has 1,390 stars, 104 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped today. caddy leads on adoption by 5,490% (77,707 vs 1,390 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pingap is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pingap 7%. pingap 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 | pingap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 104 |
| 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 pingap if
- You want the pingap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and pingap 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 pingap
Pingap is a high performance, open source reverse proxy written in Rust for operators who want nginx like routing with plugin based gateway features, hot reloaded TOML configuration, and a built in web admin UI.
read the full pingap overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or pingap more popular?
caddy has 77,707 GitHub stars and pingap has 1,390. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and pingap free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pingap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and pingap?
caddy is written in Go and pingap 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 pingap?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (77,707 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pingap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.