head to head · open source
caddy vs vulcain
caddy has 79,026 GitHub stars, 5,258 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vulcain has 3,593 stars, 102 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. caddy leads on adoption by 2,099% (79,026 vs 3,593 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; vulcain is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, vulcain 3%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (caddy, http3), 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 | vulcain | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-13 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.3K | ⑂ 102 |
| 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 vulcain if
- You want the vulcain feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and vulcain 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 vulcain
Vulcain is a brand new protocol using Preload hints and the 103 Early Hints status code to create fast and idiomatic client driven REST APIs. An open source gateway server (a module for the Caddy web server), which you can put on top of any existing web API to instantly turn it into a Vulcain compatible API is also provided! It supports hypermedia APIs (e.g. any API created with API Platform) but also any "legacy" API by documenting its relations using OpenAPI. [tabs] Preload Preload + Early Hints Server push [/tabs] Grab What You Need... Burn The REST! Introduction Pushing Relations Filtering Resources Gateway…
read the full vulcain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or vulcain more popular?
caddy has 79,026 GitHub stars and vulcain has 3,593. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and vulcain free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and vulcain under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and vulcain?
caddy is written in Go and vulcain 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 vulcain?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (79,026 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose vulcain if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.