head to head · open source
caddy vs vulcain
caddy has 76,149 GitHub stars, 5,013 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vulcain has 3,595 stars, 103 forks, 28 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 2,018% (76,149 vs 3,595 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 | ★ 76K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-08-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 103 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick caddy if
- You weight community size — 76K 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
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 vulcain
Vulcain is an open source protocol and gateway server, written in Go and released under AGPL 3.0, that turns any existing web API into a client driven REST API by using Preload hints and the 103 Early Hints status code; it is intended for API developers and platform teams who want precise control over which related resources a client fetches without abandoning REST, HTTP caching, or their existing HTTP infrastructure.
read the full vulcain overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or vulcain more popular?
caddy has 76,149 GitHub stars and vulcain has 3,595. 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 (76,149 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.