Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager
| Tagline | Automatic HTTPS web server and reverse proxy with zero config TLS | Web UI for managing Nginx reverse proxy hosts with automatic SSL |
| Category | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS | Self-Hosting Platforms & PaaS |
| Replaces | Heroku, Netlify, Render | Heroku, Netlify, Vercel |
| GitHub stars | 73k | 33k |
| Language | Go | Docker |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 2/5 Easy |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | 3 days ago |
| 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 Proxy Manager
- No built-in application deployment or build pipelines
- Lacks advanced traffic management features like rate limiting, circuit breaking, or canary deployments
- No native support for multi-node clustering or high availability
- Monitoring and logging capabilities are minimal compared to managed platforms
Bottom line
Choose Nginx Proxy Manager 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.
Nginx Proxy Manager
Web UI for managing Nginx reverse proxy hosts with automatic SSL