head to head · open source
caddy vs SoftEtherVPN
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SoftEtherVPN has 13,698 stars, 2,800 forks, 296 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 474% (78,660 vs 13,698 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; SoftEtherVPN is written in C under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, SoftEtherVPN 20%. 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 | SoftEtherVPN | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | C |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 2.8K |
| 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 SoftEtherVPN if
- You want the SoftEtherVPN feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN
SoftEther VPN SoftEther VPN BOARD MEMBERS OF THIS REPOSITORY SOFTETHER VPN ADVANTAGES Installation For FreeBSD For Windows From binary installers (stable channel) Build from Source code Antivirus False Positive Detection About HTML5 based Modern Admin Console and JSON RPC API Suite Built in SoftEther VPN Server HTML5 Ajax based Web Administration Console Built in SoftEther Server VPN JSON RPC API Suite TO CIRCUMVENT YOUR GOVERNMENT'S FIREWALL RESTRICTION SOURCE CODE CONTRIBUTION DEAR SECURITY EXPERTS SoftEther VPN (Developer Edition Master Repository) An Open Source Cross platform Multi protocol VPN Program This…
read the full SoftEtherVPN overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or SoftEtherVPN more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and SoftEtherVPN has 13,698. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and SoftEtherVPN free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SoftEtherVPN under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and SoftEtherVPN?
caddy is written in Go and SoftEtherVPN 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 SoftEtherVPN?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SoftEtherVPN if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.