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Caddy vs Discourse

Based on 15 and 1 real audits

View Caddy details | View Discourse details
MetricCaddyDiscourseWinner
Performance5567Discourse
Accessibility8196Discourse
Best Practices88100Discourse
SEO91100Discourse
Security6571Discourse
TTFB1017ms533msDiscourse
Composite7278Discourse
Performance
Caddy
55
Discourse
67
Accessibility
Caddy
81
Discourse
96
Security
Caddy
65
Discourse
71
SEO
Caddy
91
Discourse
100
Composite
Caddy
72
Discourse
78

Discourse outperforms Caddy in 7 of 7 categories, with a stronger composite score (78 vs 72). Caddy leads in no categories.

When to choose Caddy

Caddy doesn't clearly lead Discourse in any category on the sampled sites — pick it based on developer experience, ecosystem, or existing team skills rather than the audit scores.

When to choose Discourse

Choose Discourse when your primary concern is server response time and accessibility. Its audit data shows consistent strength in these areas across the sampled sites.

How this comparison was built

Scores are medians across 15 audited Caddy sites and 1 audited Discourse sites in the BeaverCheck database. Every audit runs the same 100+ checks — Lighthouse performance, security headers, accessibility, SEO, server response time — against a real URL. No vendor input, no sponsorship, no affiliate links. Read the full methodology →

Small sample: one or both technologies have fewer than 10 audited sites. Treat these numbers as directional — medians stabilize around 20–30 audits per side.

FAQ

Which is faster, Caddy or Discourse?
Based on real BeaverCheck audits, Discourse sites score higher on Lighthouse performance (67 vs 55 on average).
Which has better security, Caddy or Discourse?
Discourse sites score higher on security analysis (71 vs 65 on average).
Which has better accessibility, Caddy or Discourse?
Accessibility scores measured by Lighthouse WCAG 2.1 checks favor Discourse (96 vs 81). Both technologies can be made fully accessible with care — the difference reflects common patterns in the sampled sites, not inherent platform limits.
Which is better for SEO, Caddy or Discourse?
Discourse sites score higher on Lighthouse SEO signals (100 vs 91 on average), which cover meta tags, crawlability, mobile friendliness, and structured data. Content strategy and backlinks still matter more than platform choice for ranking.
Which has faster server response (TTFB), Caddy or Discourse?
Discourse sites show lower Time to First Byte (533 ms vs 1017 ms on average). TTFB depends heavily on hosting and CDN setup rather than the technology itself, but the sampled sites suggest a meaningful difference in common deployment patterns.
Should I choose Caddy or Discourse for my website?
Both platforms have trade-offs. Discourse scores higher on overall composite score while Caddy may excel in metrics you care about most. Run a free BeaverCheck audit on a real site using each to compare the metrics relevant to your use case.
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