You can use Caddy + php-fpm to access Pi Hole’s web interface without lighttpd.
This guide assumes you already have Caddy installed and running.
Security note: This guide does not cover best security practices. It is just a basic “here’s what you need to make it work” guide. It is up to you to secure your installation properly.
If installed, stop lighttpd:
service lighttpd stop
Install php-fpm and enable it:
apt install php8.0-fpm # change this to use the latest version
systemctl enable php8.0-fpm
systemctl start php8.0-fpm
Make your Caddyfile:
192.168.0.1:5555 # replace with your site address
root * /var/www/html
php_fastcgi unix//run/php/php8.0-fpm.sock
file_server
Reload the new config (this is just an example if you have a caddy service running):
systemctl reload caddy
Note: As of May 2020, the Pi Hole project is moving toward not requiring any external web server or interpreter, but as of PiHole 5.0 it is still needed. In the future, using a web server will apparently not be necessary unless you want to reverse proxy to it.