Caddy vs PlanetScale
The ultimate side-by-side head-to-head analysis for 2026.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Caddy is free, PlanetScale is free tier available.
- How to start: Caddy is free, PlanetScale is free tier available.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. We do not publish a quality score, because we do not have one we can stand behind. They cannot tell you which tool fits your workflow — the sections below are there for that. How we score tools.
Caddy
PlanetScale
Category
Developer Tools
Developer Tools
Base Price
Free
Free tier
Public API
Yes
Yes
Mobile app
No
No
Open source / self-hostable
Yes
No
SSO (SAML)
No
Yes
Choose Caddy if:
Anyone who wants a correctly configured HTTPS server without ceremony.
Choose PlanetScale if:
Teams shipping frequent schema changes who want to avoid migration downtime.
Caddy: pros & cons
- HTTPS configured correctly by default
- Configuration is short and legible
- Single binary, easy to deploy
- Smaller community than nginx
- Fewer third-party guides
- Some advanced setups need plugins
PlanetScale: pros & cons
- Schema changes without downtime
- Branching workflow that mirrors Git
- Managed, with no server maintenance
- No foreign key constraints in the traditional sense
- Costs rise quickly beyond small workloads
- Ties you to their platform and workflow
Our verdict on Caddy
The easiest path to good TLS defaults. nginx still wins on ecosystem and examples.
Our verdict on PlanetScale
The branching model genuinely solves a painful problem. Check the pricing tiers against your read volume before committing.