Hosting a website on Pi using caddy

🔍 Key Features

• Automatic HTTPS: Caddy automatically provisions and renews TLS certificates using Let’s Encrypt, making secure hosting effortless.
• Simple configuration: Use the human-readable Caddyfile or JSON to define routes, proxies, and site behavior.
• Built-in reverse proxy: Easily route traffic to backend services like Docker containers, APIs, or app servers.
• Cross-platform support: Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD, and even ARM-based devices like Raspberry Pi.
• Extensible architecture: Modular design allows you to add features like authentication, caching, or dynamic config via REST API.
• Zero dependencies: Caddy is a single binary with no external runtime requirements.

🚀 Docker Installation Steps

1. Update your system
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Docker
   

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
   sudo sh get-docker.sh 

3. Install Docker Compose
   sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin
4. Add your user to the Docker group
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
5. Enable Docker at boot
   sudo systemctl enable docker
6. Reboot
   sudo reboot
7. Test Docker
   docker run hello-world

📁 Setup Caddy

This guide will walk you through hosting two seperate websites.

mkdir ~/docker
mkdir ~/docker/caddy
mkdir ~/docker/caddy/website1  # This directory will hold all the files for website 1
mkdir ~/docker/caddy/website2  # This directory will hold all the files for website 2 

🧾 Docker Compose File

In ~/docker/caddy create docker-compose.yml I setup two websites. You can strip this down to one if you'd like. Or add more.

 services:
  caddy:
    image: caddy
    container_name: caddy
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    volumes:
      - ./website1:/srv/website1                     # Content for the first website
      - ./website2:/srv/website2                     # Content for the second website
      - ./Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile
      - caddy_data:/data
      - caddy_config:/config
    restart: unless-stopped

    volumes:
      caddy_data:
      caddy_config: 

In ~/docker/caddy create Dockerfile

FROM caddy:builder AS builder

RUN xcaddy build \
    --with github.com/caddy-dns/cloudflare

FROM caddy:latest

COPY --from=builder /usr/bin/caddy /usr/bin/caddy

CMD ["caddy", "run", "--config", "/etc/caddy/Caddyfile", "--adapter", "caddyfile"]

In ~/docker/caddy create Caddyfile

website1.com {
  root * /srv/website1
  file_server
  encode gzip
  tls {
    issuer acme {
      dns cloudflare {
        api_token "API-Token-from-Cloudflare"
      }
    }
  }
}

website2.com {
  root * /srv/website2
  file_server
  encode gzip
  tls {
    issuer acme {
      dns cloudflare {
        api_token "API-Token-from-Cloudflare"
      }
    }
  }
}

Clouflare

I use Cloudflare so I'll walk through that. I also assume that you've secured two domains: website1.com and website2.com

1. Go to cloudflare.com and create a free account
2. Click on "Onboard a Domain".
3. Enter your domain (ex. website1.com) and click "Continue".
4. Select the Free plan.
5. Click on "DNS Record" and add a type "A" record. "Name" is your domain (ex. website1.com). "IPv4 address" is your public facing IP address. You can get this by running curl ifconfig.me.
6. Now generate the API Token. Do this by clicking on "DNS" for website1.com under "Recents" and then clicking on "Get your API Token". Or you can go here: https://dash.cloudflare.com/profile/api-tokens Click on "Create Token" and click on "Use template" next to "Edit one DNS". Under "Permissions", select "Zone", "DNS", and "Edit". Under "Zone Resources", select "Include", "Specific Zone" and selecty your domain (ex. website1.com). Click on "Continue to summary" and "Create Token". Copy your token. That page will also give you a command that you can run on your pi to test it. Add the token you the Caddyfile.
7. Repeat these steps for your second domain

Since your IP address can change, it's important to update Cloudflare periodically

1. In ~/docker/caddy create update_website1.sh
2. Paste this into it:

   #!/usr/bin/env python3
   import requests
   
   # === CONFIGURATION ===
   ZONE_NAME = "website1.com"
   RECORD_NAME = "website1.com"
   API_TOKEN = "APT-TOKEN-FROM-CLOUDFLARE"
   
   # === FUNCTIONS ===
   def get_public_ip():
       return requests.get("https://api.ipify.org").text.strip()
   
   def get_zone_id():
       headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_TOKEN}"}
       r = requests.get("https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones", headers=headers)
       zones = r.json()["result"]
       for zone in zones:
           if zone["name"] == ZONE_NAME:
               return zone["id"]
       raise Exception("Zone not found")
   
   def get_record_id(zone_id):
       headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_TOKEN}"}
       url = f"https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/{zone_id}/dns_records"
       r = requests.get(url, headers=headers)
       records = r.json()["result"]
       for record in records:
           if record["name"] == RECORD_NAME and record["type"] == "A":
               return record["id"]
       raise Exception("A record not found")
   
   def update_dns_record(zone_id, record_id, ip):
       headers = {
           "Authorization": f"Bearer {API_TOKEN}",
           "Content-Type": "application/json"
       }
       url = f"https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/zones/{zone_id}/dns_records/{record_id}"
       data = {
           "type": "A",
           "name": RECORD_NAME,
           "content": ip,
           "ttl": 300,
           "proxied": False
       }
       r = requests.put(url, headers=headers, json=data)
       return r.json()
   
   # === MAIN EXECUTION ===
   if __name__ == "__main__":
       try:
           ip = get_public_ip()
           zone_id = get_zone_id()
           record_id = get_record_id(zone_id)
           result = update_dns_record(zone_id, record_id, ip)
           print(f"[✓] Updated {RECORD_NAME} to {ip}")
           print("Cloudflare response:", result)
       except Exception as e:
           print(f"[✗] Error: {e}")
   

3. If you don't have Python, install it
• sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
• sudo apt install python3 python3-pip -y
4. Add it to cron using crontab -e
*/10 * * * * /yourdirectory/update_website1.sh >> /yourdirectory/website1-ddns.log 2>&1
5. Repeat these steps for website2.com

Create a very simple web page to test

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Website1<title>
<head>
<body>
  <h1>This is website1<h1>
<body>
<html>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="UTF-8">
  <title>Website2<title>
<head>
<body>
  <h1>This is website1<h1>
<body>
<html>

Build and start caddy

From within ~/docker/caddy run:

cd ~docker/caddy
docker compose  build
docker compose up -d

📜 View Logs

🌐 Access your website

Open your browser and go to website1.com and then try website2.com

If this doesn't work or you're having difficulty, feel free to contact me. Also, if you find any errors, or ways to imporove on this, let me know.This is fairly complicated and there are a lot of moving parts.

Add analytics

Now that your website is up, you can add analytics to it by installing kaunta . You can also use Google Analytics.