head to head · open source
caddy vs trickster
caddy has 76,688 GitHub stars, 5,050 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. trickster has 2,092 stars, 190 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 3,566% (76,688 vs 2,092 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; trickster is written in Go under Apache-2.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, trickster 9%. 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 | trickster | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 77K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 190 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 77K 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 trickster if
- You want the trickster 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 trickster 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 trickster
Trickster is an open source Go HTTP reverse proxy cache and time series database query accelerator for operators who want faster dashboards and a hardened edge in front of HTTP services.
read the full trickster overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or trickster more popular?
caddy has 76,688 GitHub stars and trickster has 2,092. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and trickster free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and trickster under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and trickster?
caddy is written in Go and trickster 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 trickster?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,688 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose trickster if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.