head to head · open source
caddy vs smartdns
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. smartdns has 11,363 stars, 1,251 forks, 320 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 592% (78,660 vs 11,363 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; smartdns is written in C under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, smartdns 11%. smartdns 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 | smartdns | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 smartdns if
- You want the smartdns feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and smartdns 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 smartdns
SmartDNS English SmartDNS 是一个运行在本地的 DNS 服务器，它接受来自本地客户端的 DNS 查询请求，然后从多个上游 DNS 服务器获取 DNS 查询结果，并将访问速度最快的结果返回给客户端，以此提高网络访问速度。 SmartDNS 同时支持指定特定域名 IP 地址，并高性匹配，可达到过滤广告的效果; 支持DOT，DOH，DOQ，DOH3，更好的保护隐私。 与 DNSmasq 的 all servers 不同，SmartDNS 返回的是访问速度最快的解析结果。 支持树莓派、OpenWrt、华硕路由器原生固件和 Windows 系统等。 使用指导 SmartDNS官网： 软件效果展示 仪表盘 速度对比 阿里 DNS 使用阿里 DNS 查询百度IP，并检测结果。 SmartDNS 使用 SmartDNS 查询百度 IP，并检测结果。 从对比看出，SmartDNS 找到了访问 www.baidu.com 最快的 IP 地址，比阿里 DNS 速度快了 5 倍。 特性 1. 多虚拟DNS服务器 支持多个虚拟DNS服务器，不同虚拟DNS服务器不同的端口，规则，客户端。 1. 多 DNS 上游服务器 支持配置多个上游 DNS 服务器，并同时进行查询，即使其中有 DNS 服务器异常，也不会影响查询。 1. 支持每个客户端独立控制 支持基于MAC，IP地址控制客户端使用不同查询规则，可实现家长控制等功能。…
read the full smartdns overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or smartdns more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and smartdns has 11,363. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and smartdns free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and smartdns under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and smartdns?
caddy is written in Go and smartdns in C. 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 smartdns?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose smartdns if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.