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Caddy is a solid piece of software, the let's encrypt integration alone is amazing. The majority of comments here on HN seem to be negative about the pricing an

Caddy is a solid piece of software, the let's encrypt integration alone is amazing. The majority of comments here on HN seem to be negative about the pricing and commercial structure, which to me is a bit absurd. This is after all a forum for entrepreneurs right? More power to the Caddy team for trying to monetize. When you work hard, create a great product, you have every right to monetize. Quite honestly I am growing weary of the entitled, everything should be free, universal income, frugal, mentality on HN.

koolba 9y ago
My negativity isn’t about the the commercial pursuit itself, it’s about their prospects. The market that they’re going after simply doesn’t pay for web servers so it’s a very uphill battle. That and they’re pricing model, in particular charging for local dev, would inhibit things even more. I’m about as capitalistic as they come. I don’t think everything should be free. I’m perfectly fine with people charging for their goods and services. And in particular I have no qualms with charging for software, hell I do it myself! I’m simply saying the business, at least the way they’re approaching it right now, is not viable regardless of the technical advantages of the Caddy over the competition.
stephenr 9y ago
> the let's encrypt integration alone is amazing Really? How so? There are literally dozens of packages that will register and renew certs with LE using the ACME protocol, and last time I checked none of them will cause your web server to refuse to start, with a valid certificate, because LE is down. I find the whole concept to be quite conflicting. Their potential market is a Venn diagram of organisations who: want to use LetsEncrypt but can't install certbot; can justify spending $25 a month per instance for a web server licence; can't compile a go binary.
- nodesocket 9y ago
  > There are literally dozens of packages that will register and renew certs with LE using the ACME protocol, and last time I checked none of them will cause your web server to refuse to start, with a valid certificate, because LE is down. The work Caddy has put in though beyond the tech; business, pricing, support, is what differentiates a cool "project" from a business, that effort should be applauded in my opinion. Launching a project is tough... Adding pricing, support, and creating a business is in another league of difficulty.
  - stephenr 9y ago
    > that effort should be applauded in my opinion You can applaud their 'effort' all you want, but "they're trying hard" isn't a very compelling argument for using commercial software when the competition is much more mature, and open source to boot. As for your specific points of 'effort': > business Well, they clearly don't have a working business model yet so strike point 1. > pricing The whole point of this discussion is "why would people pay for this?", and their pricing is quite flip-floppy at the moment, so strike point 2. > support Their "basic" commercial support says: > We usually respond within 1-2 business days Wat. Paid support that includes the term "usually" is a giant red flag, even before you get to the idea that you could have zero response for 2 days.

koolba 9y ago

My negativity isn’t about the the commercial pursuit itself, it’s about their prospects. The market that they’re going after simply doesn’t pay for web servers so it’s a very uphill battle. That and they’re pricing model, in particular charging for local dev, would inhibit things even more. I’m about as capitalistic as they come. I don’t think everything should be free. I’m perfectly fine with people charging for their goods and services. And in particular I have no qualms with charging for software, hell I do it myself! I’m simply saying the business, at least the way they’re approaching it right now, is not viable regardless of the technical advantages of the Caddy over the competition.

stephenr 9y ago

> the let's encrypt integration alone is amazing Really? How so? There are literally dozens of packages that will register and renew certs with LE using the ACME protocol, and last time I checked none of them will cause your web server to refuse to start, with a valid certificate, because LE is down. I find the whole concept to be quite conflicting. Their potential market is a Venn diagram of organisations who: want to use LetsEncrypt but can't install certbot; can justify spending $25 a month per instance for a web server licence; can't compile a go binary.

nodesocket 9y ago
> There are literally dozens of packages that will register and renew certs with LE using the ACME protocol, and last time I checked none of them will cause your web server to refuse to start, with a valid certificate, because LE is down. The work Caddy has put in though beyond the tech; business, pricing, support, is what differentiates a cool "project" from a business, that effort should be applauded in my opinion. Launching a project is tough... Adding pricing, support, and creating a business is in another league of difficulty.
- stephenr 9y ago
  > that effort should be applauded in my opinion You can applaud their 'effort' all you want, but "they're trying hard" isn't a very compelling argument for using commercial software when the competition is much more mature, and open source to boot. As for your specific points of 'effort': > business Well, they clearly don't have a working business model yet so strike point 1. > pricing The whole point of this discussion is "why would people pay for this?", and their pricing is quite flip-floppy at the moment, so strike point 2. > support Their "basic" commercial support says: > We usually respond within 1-2 business days Wat. Paid support that includes the term "usually" is a giant red flag, even before you get to the idea that you could have zero response for 2 days.