head to head · open source
caddy vs pomerium
caddy has 76,129 GitHub stars, 5,010 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pomerium has 5,020 stars, 357 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 1,417% (76,129 vs 5,020 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pomerium is written in Go under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, pomerium 7%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (go, 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 | pomerium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-26 | 2026-09-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 357 |
| 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 pomerium if
- You want the pomerium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pomerium 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 pomerium
Pomerium is an identity and context aware access proxy, written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, that builds secure, clientless connections to internal web applications and other services without a corporate VPN.
read the full pomerium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or pomerium more popular?
caddy has 76,129 GitHub stars and pomerium has 5,020. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and pomerium free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pomerium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and pomerium?
caddy is written in Go and pomerium 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 pomerium?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,129 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pomerium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.