head to head · open source
caddy vs sshpiper
caddy has 77,932 GitHub stars, 5,134 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. sshpiper has 1,331 stars, 170 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped today. caddy leads on adoption by 5,755% (77,932 vs 1,331 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; sshpiper is written in Go under MIT. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, sshpiper 13%. sshpiper was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (golang, 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 | sshpiper | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 78K | ★ 1.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 170 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 78K 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 sshpiper if
- You want the sshpiper feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and sshpiper 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 sshpiper
sshpiper is a Go reverse proxy for sshd that routes SSH, SCP and port forwarding sessions from a downstream client to upstream SSH servers, built for operators who want a bastion layer they control sitting in front of existing hosts.
read the full sshpiper overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or sshpiper more popular?
caddy has 77,932 GitHub stars and sshpiper has 1,331. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and sshpiper free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and sshpiper under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and sshpiper?
caddy is written in Go and sshpiper 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 sshpiper?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (77,932 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose sshpiper if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.