After hundreds of high-profile attacks on large and small websites, the web world is gradually giving up on old-fashioned, unsafe, unencrypted HTTP and is moving to the safer, encrypted variant known as HTTPS. HTTPS is based on the SSL/TSL protocols, which means you need to install, maintain, and regularly renew digital certificates for the website. The certificates are only valid for a limited period, which can vary between three months to 10 years, depending on the certificate authority.

All the major web servers, such as the Apache HTTP server, Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS), and Nginx, provide some means for HTTPS support, but the configuration steps are often complicated and more trouble than you need, especially if you just operate a small website.

Caddy [1] is a simple and easy web server that delivers simple and convenient HTTPS support. Caddy uses the Let's Encrypt [2] project for easy access to free digital certificates. (See the box titled "Simply Encrypted.") Caddy also includes support for HTTP/2 (see "From HTTP 1.1 to HTTP/2"), and it comes with other useful features, such as support for the Markdown and AsciiDoc formatting languages.

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