Caddy Has a Free API That Gives You Automatic HTTPS With Zero Configuration

Caddy is a web server that gets HTTPS certificates automatically. No certbot, no cron jobs, no certificate renewal scripts. Just point it at your domain.

Quick Start

# Install
sudo apt install -y caddy

# Serve a site with automatic HTTPS
caddy reverse-proxy --from example.com --to localhost:3000

That's it. Caddy obtains a Let's Encrypt certificate, configures HTTPS, and proxies traffic.

Caddyfile (Config)

example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

api.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

static.example.com {
    root * /var/www/static
    file_server
}

Reverse Proxy with Load Balancing

example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3001 localhost:3002 localhost:3003 {
        lb_policy round_robin
        health_uri /health
        health_interval 10s
    }
}

Caddy vs Nginx vs Traefik

Feature	Caddy	Nginx	Traefik
Auto HTTPS	Yes	No	Yes
Config	Caddyfile	nginx.conf	YAML/Docker labels
Hot reload	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reverse proxy	Yes	Yes	Yes
Docker labels	Plugin	No	Native
Learning curve	Easy	Medium	Medium

API

# Caddy has a REST API for dynamic config
curl http://localhost:2019/config/
curl -X POST http://localhost:2019/load -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d @config.json

The Bottom Line

Caddy eliminates 90% of web server configuration. Automatic HTTPS, simple Caddyfile syntax, hot reload. If you're still writing Nginx configs and certbot cron jobs, switch to Caddy.

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