Caddy vs lego
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
lego
Let's Encrypt and ACME client written in Go
| Feature | Caddy | lego |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, bare-metal | binary, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 74,748 | ★ 9,789 |
| First released | 2015 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Nginx, Apache | Certbot |
Why pick each one
Choose lego if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9.8k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Caddy or lego better?
Neither is universally better. Caddy has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Caddy and lego free and open-source?
Yes. Caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and lego under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Caddy and lego with Docker?
Caddy: yes. lego: yes.