SHSelfHostIndex

Caddy vs NGINX Unit

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?
CA Caddy Fast, multi-platform web server with automatic HTTPS VS NG NGINX Unit Dynamic application server and reverse proxy
FeatureCaddyNGINX Unit
CategoryReverse Proxy & GatewaysReverse Proxy & Gateways
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoC
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, bare-metaldocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 74,748★ 5,551
First released20152017
ReplacesNginx, ApachePassenger, uWSGI

Why pick each one

Choose Caddy if…

  • Zero-config TLS
  • Easy to learn
Caddy details

Choose NGINX Unit if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 5.6k GitHub stars
  • Written in C
NGINX Unit details

Frequently asked questions

Is Caddy or NGINX Unit better?

Caddy is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider NGINX Unit if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Caddy and NGINX Unit free and open-source?

Yes. Caddy is licensed under Apache-2.0 and NGINX Unit under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Caddy and NGINX Unit with Docker?

Caddy: yes. NGINX Unit: yes.

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