Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager vs Traefik: Reverse Proxy Showdown (Real Let’s Encrypt HTTPS)

In this video we compare the 3 most homelab friendly reverse proxies the practical way: Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager (NPM) vs Traefik.

We run the same test container (whoami) behind each proxy and request a real Let’s Encrypt certificate using HTTP-01, so you can see what the setup and workflow actually feels like.

Links
- Guide: https://github.com/HomeSecExplorer/videos/blob/main/CaddyVsNpmVsTraefik.md

What you’ll learn
- What a reverse proxy does (TLS/HTTPS, routing, optional auth, allowlists, logging)
- The fastest way to get trusted HTTPS in a homelab
- When to pick Caddy vs NPM vs Traefik
- How HTTP-01 works (and why port 80 must be reachable from the internet)
- A quick security checklist for reverse proxies

Quick “pick this if” guide
- Pick Caddy if you want the simplest “it just works” HTTPS and a clean config file
- Pick NPM if you want a GUI and click-ops for hosts + certificates
- Pick Traefik if your services change often and you want Docker labels (and Kubernetes later)

Requirements (for this exact lab)
- Linux host with Docker + Docker Compose
- A domain that resolves publicly to your WAN IP (DDNS is fine)
- Port forward TCP 80 to your proxy host (required for Let’s Encrypt HTTP-01)
- Optional: port forward TCP 443 to your proxy host (for public HTTPS)

Comment below: Which proxy are you using and why?

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:54 Quick “pick this if” decision guide
02:30 Baseline test service: whoami container
03:32 Caddy
04:46 Nginx Proxy Manager
06:36 Traefik
08:08 Which one should you use?
08:46 Info and Outro
Doc's
https://github.com/HomeSecExplorer
Social's
https://bento.me/homesecexplorer

Видео Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager vs Traefik: Reverse Proxy Showdown (Real Let’s Encrypt HTTPS) канала HomeSec Explorer