head to head · open source
caddy vs zoraxy
caddy has 76,064 GitHub stars, 4,996 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped today. zoraxy has 5,490 stars, 323 forks, 159 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy leads on adoption by 1,286% (76,064 vs 5,490 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; zoraxy is written in HTML under AGPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, zoraxy 6%. caddy 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 | zoraxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 5.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-25 | 2026-09-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 323 |
| 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 zoraxy if
- You want the zoraxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and zoraxy 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 zoraxy
Zoraxy is a general purpose HTTP reverse proxy and forwarding tool, now written in Go, aimed at homelab owners, makers, and small operations teams who need to route traffic to several self hosted services without hand maintaining proxy configuration files.
read the full zoraxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or zoraxy more popular?
caddy has 76,064 GitHub stars and zoraxy has 5,490. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and zoraxy free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and zoraxy under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and zoraxy?
caddy is written in Go and zoraxy in HTML. 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 zoraxy?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (76,064 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose zoraxy if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.