head to head · open source
caddy vs pivpn
caddy has 75,868 GitHub stars, 4,976 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pivpn has 8,043 stars, 682 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 21 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 843% (75,868 vs 8,043 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pivpn is written in Shell under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pivpn 8%. caddy 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 | pivpn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 8.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 682 |
| 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 pivpn if
- You want the pivpn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pivpn 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 pivpn
PiVPN is a set of open source shell scripts that turns a Raspberry Pi, or an Ubuntu or Debian server, into a self hosted VPN server running WireGuard or OpenVPN, and it is built for people who want a cost effective personal VPN at home without having to become a networking expert.
read the full pivpn overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or pivpn more popular?
caddy has 75,868 GitHub stars and pivpn has 8,043. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and pivpn free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pivpn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and pivpn?
caddy is written in Go and pivpn in Shell. 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 pivpn?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (75,868 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pivpn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.