Caddy vs NGINX
| Tagline | Automatic HTTPS web server and reverse proxy with zero config TLS | High-performance HTTP server, reverse proxy, and TCP/UDP proxy |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Netlify, Render | Heroku, Netlify, Vercel |
| GitHub stars | 73k | 31k |
| Language | Go | C |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 4/5 Involved |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | yesterday |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
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
NGINX
- Configuration is entirely file-based with no built-in web UI for management
- No application deployment, build, or CI/CD capabilities out of the box
- SSL certificate management requires manual setup or external tools (e.g., Certbot)
- Lacks application-level observability dashboards; requires third-party tools for metrics
Bottom line
Choose Caddy if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Caddy for the larger community and ecosystem. Caddy has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.