Cloud · head to head
Caddy vs Grafana Cloud
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Caddy smaller ecosystem than Nginx, so third-party guides and modules are fewer; Grafana Cloud active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills
- They diverge on capability: Caddy covers Automatic HTTPS, Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Caddy and Grafana Cloud actually diverge.
| Attribute | Caddy | Grafana Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Open source, no licence fee | Unknown |
| Platforms | Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker | Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API |
| Founded | Unknown | 2014 |
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Cloud).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Caddy
- Automatic HTTPS
- Caddyfile
- Reverse proxy
- Single binary
Only in Grafana Cloud
- Grafana Dashboards
- Prometheus Metrics
- Loki Logs
- Tempo Traces
- Alerting
- OnCall
- Synthetic Monitoring
- Incident Management
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Caddy
- Sites and services where expired certificates have caused outages beforenot Grafana Cloud
- Small deployments where Nginx configuration is more effort than the problem warrantsnot Grafana Cloud
- Reverse proxying internal services with TLS without a certificate workflownot Grafana Cloud
Grafana Cloud
- Infrastructure monitoringnot Caddy
- Application monitoringnot Caddy
- Log aggregationnot Caddy
- Distributed tracingnot Caddy
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Caddy
- Smaller ecosystem than Nginx, so third-party guides and modules are fewer
- Adding plugins means rebuilding the binary rather than loading a module
- Under very high throughput Nginx generally still benchmarks ahead
- Automatic certificate issuance needs outbound internet access, which complicates air-gapped deployments
Grafana Cloud
- Active Series (AS) billing model is difficult to predict and control; misconfiguration can cause sudden spikes and unexpected bills
- Reduced control and customization compared to self-hosted Grafana instances
- Data sovereignty concerns for organizations requiring on-premises data retention
- Limited reporting types compared to traditional BI tools for compliance and audit requirements
Pricing, plan by plan
Caddy
Free- CaddyFree
- Full functionality
- Commercial use permitted
- Community support
Grafana Cloud
Free- FreeFree
- 10k active series (metrics)
- 50GB logs/traces per month
- 3 active users
- Pro$19/month
- Usage-based pricing beyond free tier
- 8 USD per active visualization user
- Included Grafana Alerting
- Enterprise$25000/year
- Minimum annual commitment
- Full-service deployment options
- Premium support
Which should you pick?
Choose Caddy if
- You need automatic https.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker.
- You also want caddyfile.
Choose Grafana Cloud if
- You need grafana dashboards.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.
- You also want prometheus metrics.
Questions people ask
- Is Caddy or Grafana Cloud better?
- Neither clearly leads. Caddy starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Caddy or Grafana Cloud?
- Caddy starts at Free and Grafana Cloud at Free.
- Does Caddy or Grafana Cloud run on more platforms?
- Caddy runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Docker. Grafana Cloud runs on Web (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari), API.
- Can I use Caddy for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Caddy best used for?
- Caddy is most often used for sites and services where expired certificates have caused outages before, small deployments where nginx configuration is more effort than the problem warrants, reverse proxying internal services with tls without a certificate workflow. Of those, sites and services where expired certificates have caused outages before and small deployments where nginx configuration is more effort than the problem warrants are not what Grafana Cloud is typically brought in for.
- What can Caddy do that Grafana Cloud cannot?
- Caddy covers Automatic HTTPS, Caddyfile, Reverse proxy, Single binary. Grafana Cloud covers Grafana Dashboards, Prometheus Metrics, Loki Logs, Tempo Traces.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Caddy: Is Caddy free?
Yes, open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, free for commercial use.
Grafana Cloud: What are the exact limits of Grafana Cloud's free tier?
Grafana Cloud free tier includes 10,000 active series for metrics, 50GB logs and traces per month, 3 active visualization users, and 14-day retention with community support. No credit card required.
SourceCaddy: What does automatic HTTPS mean?
Caddy obtains certificates from Let’s Encrypt or ZeroSSL on first request and renews them before expiry, with no cron job or configuration.
Grafana Cloud: How is Grafana Cloud billed, and what are the per-unit costs?
Grafana Cloud Pro tier starts at $19/month platform fee plus usage-based charges. Metrics cost $6.50 per 1,000 active series above free limits, logs and traces are charged per GB ingested, and visualization users are $8 per active user.
SourceCaddy: Caddy or Nginx?
Caddy is dramatically simpler to configure and removes certificate management. Nginx has the larger ecosystem and better peak throughput.
Grafana Cloud: Can I use Grafana Cloud for open-source Grafana deployments?
Grafana Cloud is the managed cloud service version. Open-source Grafana is free and can be self-hosted indefinitely on your own infrastructure.
SourceGrafana Cloud: What observability signals does Grafana Cloud include?
Grafana Cloud includes metrics (via Mimir), logs (via Loki), traces (via Tempo), profiles, and synthetics, with unified querying and visualization across all signals.
SourceGrafana Cloud: Does Grafana Cloud include alerting and how is it priced?
Yes, Grafana Alerting is included at no additional charge across all tiers. Rule storage, evaluation, and notification delivery are covered by the platform fee with no per-alert or per-notification fees.
SourceRelated pages
More on Grafana Cloud
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