caddyscript

Why CaddyPress?

CaddyPress is the single, opinionated, fully-automated installer that turns a clean Debian 13 droplet into a modern, secure, QUIC-enabled web server in under 5 minutes. I was tired of “minimal” stacks that used 4+ GB of disk and required constant babysitting.

Introduction

There are some very good scripts for automating installation of wordpress on VPS. Almost every “one-click” stack still forces you to install Ubuntu bloat, fight Nginx rewrite rules, and manually manage SSL certs.

We built CaddyPress because we wanted two tiny sites (one ClassicPress blog + one static page) running forever on the cheapest VPS possible **with zero maintenance.**

Problem: Ubuntu Bloat

Ubuntu Server has become bloated. A fresh install of Ubuntu 24.04 takes up nearly 4.5 GB of disk space and runs Snap services you don't need.

Debian 13 is boring, stable, and tiny. It installs in under 1.5 GB. It has no corporate agenda. It just works. For a small VPS with 20GB storage, that 3GB difference matters.

Core Beliefs

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Caddy over Nginx/LiteSpeed?
Does this work with WordPress?

Yes — just change CLASSICPRESS_URL to the latest WordPress zip URL. Everything else works identically.

Where are my database credentials?

Securely stored in wp-config.php. View via SSH or your SQL client. They are never printed to the screen.

Why does the script enforce Debian 13?

The script uses **Debian 13** for a minimal footprint (~1.4 GB disk) compared to Ubuntu 24.04 (~4.5 GB). It avoids Snap and telemetry for simplicity. You can technically remove the Debian check, but it’s not recommended.

Is this better than SlickStack or Webinoly?

It’s different. They optimize for raw speed on Ubuntu + Nginx. caddyscript prioritizes **simplicity, security-by-default, and tiny resource usage**.

Massive respect to:

Why caddyscript?

I was tired of “minimal” stacks that weren’t minimal. This is built for small, sustainable, privacy-respecting blogs that run forever on a $5 VPS.

Where is phpMyAdmin?

Intentionally omitted for **security**. We recommend using an SSH tunnel with a professional SQL client like TablePlus or HeidiSQL instead.

Why Caddy?
Security by Default