head to head · open source
caddy vs webinoly
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars, 5,232 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webinoly has 519 stars, 95 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 15,056% (78,660 vs 519 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; webinoly is written in Shell under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, webinoly 18%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | webinoly | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 79K | ★ 519 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.2K | ⑂ 95 |
| 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 webinoly if
- You want the webinoly feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and webinoly 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 webinoly
Optimized NGINX Web Server A powerful set of commands for doing just about anything you could wish. Official Website Documentation Changelog Overview Webinoly offers one of the most reliable configurations for hosting websites—deploy everything in a single step. Install a complete LEMP stack or individual packages tailored to your needs. 🚀 Key Features LEMP Stack: Ubuntu + NGINX + MariaDB/MySQL + PHP Performance: FastCGI Cache, Redis Object Cache, HTTP/3 support Security: Free SSL via Let’s Encrypt, HTTP Authentication WordPress Tools: Subfolder install, external database, multisite, domain mapping Reverse…
read the full webinoly overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or webinoly more popular?
caddy has 78,660 GitHub stars and webinoly has 519. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and webinoly free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and webinoly under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and webinoly?
caddy is written in Go and webinoly in Shell. 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 webinoly?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (78,660 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose webinoly if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.