Setting Up Caddy as a Web Server

What is Caddy?

Caddy is a modern web server written in Go that automatically handles HTTPS via Let's Encrypt. It requires minimal configuration and is perfect for simple deployments.

Installation

sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https
curl -1sLf "https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key" | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf "https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y caddy

Caddyfile Configuration

Edit /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

# Static site (auto HTTPS!)
example.com {
    root * /var/www/html
    file_server
}

# Reverse proxy
api.example.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000
}

# PHP site
mysite.com {
    root * /var/www/mysite
    php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock
    file_server
}

Key Features

• Automatic HTTPS — obtains and renews certificates with zero configuration
• Single binary — no dependencies needed
• HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 — enabled by default
• Simple config — the Caddyfile is far more readable than Nginx/Apache configs

Reload After Changes

sudo systemctl reload caddy