head to head · open source
caddy vs pivpn
caddy has 78,721 GitHub stars, 5,230 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pivpn has 8,063 stars, 683 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 876% (78,721 vs 8,063 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| caddy | pivpn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 8.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-08-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 683 |
| 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 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
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 pivpn
[!WARNING] PiVPN is maintained on a best effort basis, please read more about it here. Previous announcement is here. PIVPN.IO DOCUMENTATION PiVPN is a set of shell scripts developed to easily turn your Raspberry Pi (TM) into a VPN server using two free, open source protocols: WireGuard OpenVPN This script's primary mission in life is to allow a user to have as cost effective as possible VPN at home without being a technical wizard, hence the design of PiVPN to work on a Raspberry Pi ($35) with a one command installer followed by easy management of the VPN with the 'pivpn' command. That being said... PiVPN…
read the full pivpn overview →
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 pivpn more popular?
caddy has 78,721 GitHub stars and pivpn has 8,063. 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 (78,721 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pivpn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.