1Panel vs Caddy
| Tagline | Modern Linux server and web-app management panel with app store deploys | Automatic HTTPS web server and reverse proxy with zero config TLS |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Render | Heroku, Netlify, Render |
| GitHub stars | 36k | 73k |
| Language | Go | Go |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | today |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
1Panel
- More of a server/hosting control panel than a git-push PaaS; no native buildpack or git-deploy pipeline.
- No horizontal autoscaling or clustering across nodes.
- Documentation and community are strongest in Chinese; English resources lag.
- No managed cloud option or edge/CDN.
Caddy
- Not a full PaaS; no git push deploy, build pipelines, or app lifecycle management
- No built-in CI/CD integration; needs to be combined with other tools for deployments
- Dashboard and metrics require third-party tools (Prometheus, Grafana) — none built-in
- No managed database provisioning or environment variable secrets management
Bottom line
Choose 1Panel if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Caddy for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.