Caddy vs dae
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Caddy
Fast, multi-platform web server with automatic HTTPS
VS
dae
eBPF-based transparent proxy with traffic splitting
| Feature | Caddy | dae |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 74,748 | ★ 6,058 |
| First released | 2015 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Nginx, Apache | Clash |
Why pick each one
Choose dae if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Caddy or dae better?
Caddy is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider dae if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Caddy and dae free and open-source?
Yes. Caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dae under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Caddy and dae with Docker?
Caddy: yes. dae: check the project docs for container support.