Tools/caddyserver/caddy

Caddy

Fast, multi-platform web server with automatic HTTPS

78.8k ★+281/wkestablishedGoApache License 2.0 →trending

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The Lens

By Erik Loyd, SaaS CEO and former COO/CFO of an AWS Premier Partner.

Updated Oct 2026

Caddy is the web server that handles HTTPS for you. Point a domain at it and it gets and renews TLS certificates on its own, for public sites, localhost and internal IPs alike. It doubles as a reverse proxy, the job most people hand to NGINX or Traefik. Apache 2.0, written in Go, and every feature is free.

Setup is one dependency-free binary and a Caddyfile that is often a handful of lines. Automation gets a JSON config with a live REST API. On-Demand TLS issues certificates during the handshake, which is why white-label SaaS products use it for customer domains. Version 2.11 is current and releases keep coming.

There is no paid edition and no hosted Caddy. Money comes from sponsorships run by Dyanim, LLC, original author Matt Holt's company: $25/month for individuals up to $11,900/month for Enterprise+, buying support and priority, not features. Solo and small teams: free. Larger teams in production: still free, but a sponsorship is the only way to get the maintainers on a call.

The catch: plugins are compiled in, not loaded. Wildcard certificates need a DNS provider module, and any third-party module means a custom build with xcaddy, redone on every upgrade.

Free vs Self-Hosted vs Paid

fully free

Free: Everything. Caddy is Apache 2.0 with no paywalled features, no enterprise edition and no license keys: automatic HTTPS (ZeroSSL and Let's Encrypt for public names, a managed local CA for internal names and IPs), reverse proxy with load balancing and health checks, HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3, the JSON config API and On-Demand TLS.

Self-hosted: The only way to run it. Download a binary for your platform, use a distro package, or build your own. Plugins (DNS providers for wildcard certificates, third-party modules) are compiled in with xcaddy build or picked on caddyserver.com/download, so a plugin setup means maintaining a custom build. There is no hosted Caddy service; your cost is the server it runs on.

Paid: No paid software tier. Support comes through sponsorships fulfilled by Dyanim, LLC (Matt Holt's company): Indie $25/month, Indie Pro $50/month (occasional email support), Startup $99/month, Startup Pro $249/month, Business $999/month, Business+ $2,999/month, Enterprise $5,900/month and Enterprise+ $11,900/month (dedicated support, 1 business day response, on-sites). Sponsorships are explicitly not software licenses; your license is the same either way.

Free, with every feature in the open source binary. Support is the only thing for sale, via sponsorships from $25/month to $11,900/month, with business-grade email support starting at the $999/month Business tier.

What to do by team size

Solo: free; one binary and a short Caddyfile
Small team: free; Startup sponsorship at $99/month if you want an onboarding call and email help
Medium team: free software; Business sponsorship at $999/month if Caddy is on your critical path
Large team: free software; Business+ or Enterprise sponsorship ($2,999 to $11,900/month) for dedicated support, custom patches and response guarantees

Self-hosting ops:trivial

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