head to head · open source
certificates vs Peergos
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars, 616 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Peergos has 2,549 stars, 204 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. certificates leads on adoption by 255% (9,037 vs 2,549 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Peergos is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Peergos 8%. Peergos was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Peergos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 616 | ⑂ 204 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certificates if
- You weight community size — 9.0K 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 Peergos if
- You want the Peergos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Peergos fits your workflow better
About certificates
step ca step ca is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps. It's the server counterpart to the step CLI tool for working with certificates and keys. Both projects are maintained by Smallstep Labs. You can use step ca to: Issue HTTPS server and client certificates that work in browsers (RFC5280 and CA/Browser Forum compliance) Issue TLS certificates for DevOps: VMs, containers, APIs, database connections, Kubernetes pods... Issue SSH certificates: For people, in exchange for single sign on identity tokens For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents…
read the full certificates overview →
About Peergos
Peergos ======== Peergos is building the next web the private web, where end users are in control. Imagine web apps being secure by default and unable to track you. Imagine being able to control exactly what personal data each web app can see. Imagine never having to log in to an app ever again. You own your data and decide where it is stored and who can see it. At Peergos, we believe that privacy is a fundamental human right and we want to make it easy for everyone to interact online in ways that respect this right. The foundation of Peergos is a peer to peer encrypted global filesystem with fine grained access…
read the full Peergos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Peergos more popular?
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars and Peergos has 2,549. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Peergos free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Peergos under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Peergos?
certificates is written in Go and Peergos in Java. 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 Peergos?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (9,037 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Peergos if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.