100 | Caddy: A Web Server That Just Works and SSL Out of the Box

Introduction

In a world where setting up a web server often requires studying complex configuration files, Caddy offers a radically different approach. It is a modern, multifunctional web server, reverse proxy, and certificate authority in one package.

Caddy was created with a single goal: to provide maximum simplicity. If you are tired of the redundancy of Nginx or Apache, then Caddy is what you’re looking for. Its main “killer feature” is fully automatic SSL certificate management, making it an indispensable tool for developers.

Key Concepts and Installation

The philosophy of Caddy is simplicity and automation. Its key feature is built-in SSL support through Let’s Encrypt.

Caddy automatically obtains, manages, and renews certificates, freeing you from routine tasks that previously required manual handling with Certbot.

Installation is as simple as it gets: Caddy comes as a single binary file. Just download it from the official website and run it.

This makes Caddy incredibly portable and convenient to integrate into any environment:

• VPS
• Docker container
• Raspberry Pi

Caddy as a Reverse Proxy: Simple and Effective

For developers, Caddy is especially useful as a reverse proxy. It allows you to easily proxy traffic from a domain to a local port or another container.

Its configuration file (Caddyfile) is so simple that it reads like plain text.

Example: your application runs on localhost:3000, and you want to expose it via the domain app.dev.

app.dev {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

And that’s it — Caddy will automatically obtain an SSL certificate for app.dev and proxy all traffic.

Now let’s add a second service, for example, an API on port 8000:

app.dev {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

api.dev {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8000
}

This is incredibly convenient for local development and testing.

Convenience for CI/CD

Caddy is a great fit for CI/CD because its simplicity minimizes the number of steps in the pipeline:

• Easy integration: can be added into a Dockerfile for building the app image.
• Small footprint: just one binary → compact final image.
• No manual SSL setup: the pipeline doesn’t require Certbot steps or extra scripts.

Caddy takes care of all the routine.

Conclusion

Caddy is a modern web server that makes developers’ lives easier. Minimal configuration, automatic SSL, smooth CI/CD integration — all of this makes it an excellent alternative to Nginx and Apache.

If you’re looking for a “set it and forget it” solution — give Caddy a try.