Caddy all the way!

Traefik is a PITA.

Caddy all the way. If you build it with Docker support (or grab the prebuilt), you can use docker container names to reverse proxy using names instead of any IP addresses or ports. It’s nice because if the IP updates, so does caddy. All automatically.

Here’s what my caddyfile looks like;

{
        acme_dns cloudflare {key}
}

domain.dev {
        encode zstd gzip
        root * /var/www/html/domain.dev/
        php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock
        tls {
                dns cloudflare {key}
        }
}
*.domain.dev {
        encode zstd gzip
        tls {
                dns cloudflare {key}
        }
        @docker host docker.domain.dev
        handle @docker {
                encode zstd gzip
                reverse_proxy {portainer}
        }
        @test host test.domain.dev
        handle @test {
                encode zstd gzip
                reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:10000
        }
        @images host i.domain.dev
        handle @images {
                encode zstd gzip
                reverse_proxy 127.0.0.1:9002
        }
        @proxy host proxy.domain.dev
        handle @proxy {
                encode zstd gzip
                reverse_proxy proxy
        }
        @portal host portal.domain.dev
        handle @portal {
                encode zstd gzip
                reverse_proxy portal
        }
        @ping host ping.domain.dev
        handle @ping {
                encode zstd gzip
                respond "pong!"
        }
}

DNS hosted by cloudflare but because caddy handles ACME certs, all the subdomains automatically get SSL.

I like NPM, it’s simple, but also allows for more complex configs as well if needed. I run it in its own LXC because I have other non-dockerized things that are exposed.

If you’re just going to VPN in to your home network, I’ve found caddy to be the simplest.

I am using nginx on a separate machine (VM) I have yet to try it in docker, I just have not found a reason to change it yet.

I’ve tried npm, caddy and traefik but they are always way more complicated then adding a new config file in nginx…

I feel the others add too much to the docker configs and limit what can be added to the reverse proxy. I have control of access from the nginx server, without having to change the apps configuration.

NPM is the closest to what I would like (only needing the same network in docker) if I go the docker way but for some reason it never works as it should when I configure it. So I am sticking to plain nginx.

I highly recommend npm. It’s also the only one I’ve used, so please keep that in mind.

I think NGINX has the best reverse proxy

Nginx installed directly, I use nano over ssh to edit configs. Forces you to learn some things and I never moved passed it because it works so well.

I really like Zoraxy. Similar to NPM but it’s its own thing and I like it a lot more

I know how to use raw nginx/Caddy/traefik to do it, but I find the WebUI and all the extra features Zoraxy has to be very convenient and easy to use.

NPM was the first one that worked for me. I used a YouTube tutorial. I tried Nginx and Caddy, but couldn’t figure them out. For context, I try to run anything I can out of Docker, which adds some complexity I think. I must not have been doing the templates correctly or something.

I plan on trying to go for Nginx or Caddy later, but right now NPM works wonders for my use case.

I want to just mention frp, I use it to get around firewalls

I had a poor experience with NPM which turned me to SWAG, it worked, but was a tad slow. Moved to Traefik and haven’t looked back.

having tried many in past, i always go back to haproxy. it has everything required as proxy and load balancer while also being very efficient.

Caddy is really simple and easy. Just werks and gives you https

In my experience, all the 3 big ones work just fine. Caddy, Traefik, Nginx. I use Nginx.