Caddy vs HAProxy
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
HAProxy
Reliable, high-performance TCP/HTTP load balancer
| Feature | Caddy | HAProxy |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | C |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | docker, binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 74,748 | ★ 6,760 |
| First released | 2015 | 2001 |
| Replaces | Nginx, Apache | F5 BIG-IP, AWS ELB |
Why pick each one
Choose HAProxy if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 6.8k GitHub stars
- Written in C
Frequently asked questions
Is Caddy or HAProxy better?
Caddy is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider HAProxy if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Caddy and HAProxy free and open-source?
Yes. Caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and HAProxy under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Caddy and HAProxy with Docker?
Caddy: yes. HAProxy: yes.