head to head · open source
certificates vs Certipy
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Certipy has 3,672 stars, 483 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. certificates leads on adoption by 142% (8,885 vs 3,672 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Certipy is written in Python under MIT. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Certipy 13%. 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 | Certipy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 3.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-07-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 483 |
| 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 Certipy if
- You want the Certipy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Certipy 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 Certipy
Certipy is an open source Python toolkit, published under the MIT licence on PyPI as certipy ad , for enumerating and abusing Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), built for red teamers, penetration testers, and defenders who need to assess AD CS misconfigurations in Windows Active Directory environments.
read the full Certipy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Certipy more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and Certipy has 3,672. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Certipy free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Certipy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Certipy?
certificates is written in Go and Certipy in Python. 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 Certipy?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (8,885 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Certipy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.