head to head · open source
caddy vs sliver
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sliver has 12,218 stars, 1,641 forks, 222 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 544% (78,660 vs 12,218 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; sliver is written in Go under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, sliver 13%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (golang, http), 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 | sliver | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 sliver if
- You want the sliver feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sliver 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 sliver
Sliver Sliver is an open source cross platform adversary emulation/red team framework, it can be used by organizations of all sizes to perform security testing. Sliver's implants support C2 over Mutual TLS (mTLS), WireGuard, HTTP(S), and DNS and are dynamically compiled with per binary asymmetric encryption keys. The server and client support MacOS, Windows, and Linux. Implants are supported on MacOS, Windows, and Linux (and possibly every Golang compiler target but we've not tested them all). Visit for tutorials and documentation. Features Dynamic code generation Compile time obfuscation Multiplayer mode Staged…
read the full sliver overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or sliver more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and sliver has 12,218. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and sliver free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sliver under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and sliver?
caddy is written in Go and sliver 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 sliver?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sliver if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.