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Caddy vs Nginx: catalog facts
Caddy	Nginx
Free Free and open source under Apache 2.0.	Free Nginx open source is free. Nginx Plus is a paid subscription.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted	Windows, macOS, Linux, Self-hosted
Automatic HTTPS by default, including a managed local CA for internal names and IPs A working reverse proxy with TLS takes two lines of configuration	Event-driven model handles large numbers of idle connections cheaply One binary covers static serving, reverse proxying, caching and load balancing
Fewer third-party modules and less documentation than nginx Adding modules means rebuilding the binary with xcaddy	Dynamic modules must usually be compiled in Several load-balancing and monitoring features are exclusive to the paid Nginx Plus
Downloadable app, Self-hosted	Self-hosted
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: BSD-2-Clause
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.