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

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