head to head · open source
caddy vs goproxy
caddy has 75,868 GitHub stars, 4,976 forks, 286 open issues and last shipped yesterday. goproxy has 17,135 stars, 3,094 forks, 143 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. caddy leads on adoption by 343% (75,868 vs 17,135 stars). caddy is written in Go under Apache-2.0; goproxy is written in Go under GPL-3.0. caddy has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, goproxy 18%. caddy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (http, 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 | goproxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 76K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-08-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.0K | ⑂ 3.1K |
| 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 goproxy if
- You want the goproxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and goproxy 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 goproxy
goproxy is a GPL 3.0 licensed, Go based proxy server that provides HTTP(S), SOCKS5, ss, WebSocket, TCP and UDP proxying from a single program, intended for operators and developers who need forward, reverse, transparent, chained and NAT traversal proxying without wiring together several separate tools.
read the full goproxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is caddy or goproxy more popular?
caddy has 75,868 GitHub stars and goproxy has 17,135. caddy has the larger community by that measure.
Are caddy and goproxy free?
Both are open source. caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and goproxy under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between caddy and goproxy?
caddy is written in Go and goproxy 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 goproxy?
Choose caddy if you want the larger community (75,868 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose goproxy if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.