head to head · open source
certificates vs AutomatedLab
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. AutomatedLab has 2,226 stars, 383 forks, 31 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. certificates leads on adoption by 299% (8,885 vs 2,226 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; AutomatedLab is written in PowerShell under MIT. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, AutomatedLab 17%. certificates was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (pki), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| certificates | AutomatedLab | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | PowerShell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 383 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certificates if
- You weight community size — 8.9K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick AutomatedLab if
- You want the AutomatedLab feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PowerShell
- You evaluated both and AutomatedLab fits your workflow better
About certificates
step ca is an open source online certificate authority that issues X.509 and SSH certificates and runs as an ACME server, built for DevOps teams that need automated certificate management without a commercial PKI contract.
read the full certificates overview →
About AutomatedLab
AutomatedLab is an MIT licensed PowerShell provisioning framework that deploys complex lab environments — Windows domain controllers, Exchange, PKI, IIS and Linux guests — on Hyper V or Azure from simple scripts, built for IT admins, testers and trainers who need full multi VM labs on demand.
read the full AutomatedLab overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or AutomatedLab more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and AutomatedLab has 2,226. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and AutomatedLab free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and AutomatedLab under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and AutomatedLab?
certificates is written in Go and AutomatedLab in PowerShell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, certificates or AutomatedLab?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (8,885 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose AutomatedLab if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.