Caddy instead of nginx for small projects
nginx is a great server, but for a small project its TLS setup and certificate auto-renewal take noticeably more moving parts. Caddy does that out of the box.
Certificates without the fuss
Caddy obtains and renews Let's Encrypt certificates itself. You just name the domain — provided its DNS record points correctly and the validation port is open.
example.com {
root * /srv/site
file_server
encode gzip
header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=31536000"
}This config serves a static site over HTTPS with compression and a security header — and renews the certificate on its own.
A readable config
The Caddyfile format is compact and hard to break by accident: fewer semicolons and nested blocks than a typical nginx configuration. For a small team that means fewer chances to make a mistake.
When nginx after all
If you need fine control over buffers, complex routing or specific modules, nginx is justified. For static sites, simple services and a quick start, Caddy saves an evening of setup and then stays out of the way.