head to head · open source
certificates vs Quiet
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars, 616 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Quiet has 2,660 stars, 150 forks, 773 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. certificates leads on adoption by 240% (9,037 vs 2,660 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Quiet is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Quiet 6%. certificates 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 | Quiet | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 2.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 616 | ⑂ 150 |
| 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 Quiet if
- You want the Quiet feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Quiet 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 Quiet
Quiet Encrypted p2p team chat with no servers, just Tor. Downloads How it Works Features Threat Model Mission FAQ Developer setup Quiet is an alternative to team chat apps like Slack, Discord, and Element that does not require trusting a central server or running one's own. In Quiet, all data syncs directly between a team's devices over Tor with no server required. NOTE: Quiet is not audited and should not be used when privacy and security are critical. It lacks basic features and probably won't replace your Slack or Discord yet. That said, it works surprisingly well and we use it daily as a Slack replacement…
read the full Quiet overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Quiet more popular?
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars and Quiet has 2,660. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Quiet free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Quiet under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Quiet?
certificates is written in Go and Quiet in TypeScript. 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 Quiet?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (9,037 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Quiet if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.