Caddy vs Nginx
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Caddy and Nginx.
Quick Verdict
4.2/5
Caddy
0 reviews
4.2/5
Nginx
0 reviews
Both Caddy and Nginx are equally rated at 4.2/5. Caddy is a modern open source web server and load balancer with automatic HTTPS (Let's Encrypt/ZeroSSL) by default. No SSL configuration needed. Used for reverse proxying and load balancing. Used by 30.2% of all websites whose web server is known (W3Techs, Oct 2026), second behind Cloudflare Server at 32.6%; still the most widely deployed self-hosted web server and reverse proxy.
Caddy Automatic HTTPS load balancer and web server | Nginx Open source web server and load balancer | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Rating | 4.2 (0 reviews) | 4.2 (0 reviews) |
| Pricing model | free | free |
| Starting price | Free | Free |
| Best for | Developers and SaaS teams who want a reverse proxy or web server that handles TLS certificates automatically with minimal configuration | Every team running web applications that wants the industry-standard free reverse proxy and HTTP load balancer, with a paid Plus path when active health checks and support become necessary. |
| Features | ||
| IPv6 | ✓ | |
| DDoS protection | ||
| Automated backups | ||
| Snapshots | ||
| Managed option | ||
| Bare metal | ||
| GPU available | ||
| S3-compatible | ||
| Hourly billing | ✓ | |
| Free tier | ||
| Tags | ||
| Tags | free tieropen sourceself hostable | free tieropen sourceself hostable |
| Visit Caddy → | Visit Nginx → | |
Caddy
Pros
- + Automatic HTTPS by default — certificate issuance and renewal built in
- + Free, Apache 2.0, single static Go binary with no runtime dependencies
- + Reverse proxy with load balancing, health checks, HTTP/2 and HTTP/3
- + On-Demand TLS for SaaS platforms issuing certs on customer domains
- + Live JSON config API plus Caddyfile; fleet-wide cert coordination via shared storage
Cons
- - Raw throughput behind Nginx at extreme concurrency
- - Smaller module ecosystem; plugins require compiling a custom binary
- - Businesses are expected to buy sponsorships ($2,999/mo+) for support
- - No SLA or contractual support from a large vendor
Nginx
Pros
- + Free, BSD-licensed, and battle-tested across two decades of production use
- + Web server, reverse proxy, cache, and HTTP/TCP/UDP load balancer in one binary
- + 10,000+ concurrent connections at very low memory footprint
- + Modern protocol coverage: HTTP/2, gRPC, WebSockets, IPv6, ACME, experimental HTTP/3
- + Zero-downtime binary and configuration reloads
- + Enormous documentation and community knowledge base; every ops engineer knows it
Cons
- - Configuration file learning curve is steep and error feedback is terse
- - Active health checks, runtime config API, and fleet metrics are locked behind NGINX Plus
- - No SLA or vendor support for self-managed open-source installs
- - Project stewardship friction (freenginx and Angie forks) after F5 acquisition
- - HTTP/3 remains experimental in the open-source branch
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