Next Steps for the Caddy Project Maintainership

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

What Caddy Is and Where It Fits

  • Seen as a modern alternative to nginx/Apache and often as an alternative to Traefik, especially for reverse proxying and TLS.
  • Users report using it “by default” now for homelabs, hobby projects, and some production setups, with high reliability over many years.
  • Some think Traefik is still better optimized as a Kubernetes ingress, but Caddy is preferred as a standalone reverse proxy or in front of containers.

Configuration, Defaults, and Features

  • Strong praise for Caddy’s configuration model: concise, readable, good documentation, and sane defaults.
  • Automatic HTTPS/ACME is repeatedly highlighted as the killer feature: install, run, and certificates just work (including rotation and multi-domain support).
  • Caddy enables HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 by default and picks modern TLS settings, reducing the need for admins to track best practices.
  • There is some skepticism that “fewer lines of config” matters in professional contexts where configs are large and complex anyway. Critics argue praise should focus more on deeper capabilities than shorthand.

Comparisons with nginx, Apache, and Traefik

  • nginx is described as “hands-off”: powerful but requires more explicit configuration (TLS ciphers, headers, ACME, PHP proxies).
  • Apache is defended as very capable and extensible (including ACME support), but several commenters note that managing Apache configs at scale is painful in modern environments.
  • Traefik is viewed by some as having poor configuration ergonomics but a useful web UI, which makes it popular with homelab users.
  • One thread praises Caddy’s directory listing and notes it can be customized via templates.

Maintainership, Burnout, and Funding

  • The original post (on the forum) is about spreading maintainership and turning off constant notifications; commenters are broadly supportive and empathetic about maintainer burnout.
  • There’s discussion about how free software maintainers should get paid: sponsorships, platform-level maintenance fees, vs. staying volunteer-based.
  • Core contributors say they are volunteers and prioritize funding the primary maintainer first; some suggest companies should sponsor more.

Trailing-dot Domain Bug Controversy

  • A recurring complaint is that Caddy fails to serve domains written with a trailing dot (fully qualified form).
  • Maintainers view this as an extremely niche issue, previously discussed in depth, and argue that changing low-level matching could risk subtle security bugs.
  • The way this complaint is raised again in the HN thread triggers a defensive reaction from maintainers, leading to a long meta-discussion about tone, perceived “grudges,” and how dismissing bug reports affects trust.
  • Some readers see the response as an overreaction and a red flag for maintainership culture; others defend the maintainers, emphasizing the emotional toll of repeated niche complaints and urging critics to contribute code instead of only raising the issue.