head to head · open source
certificates vs Tuta
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Tuta has 7,925 stars, 639 forks, 1,001 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certificates leads on adoption by 12% (8,885 vs 7,925 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Tuta is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Tuta 8%. Tuta was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (security), 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 | Tuta | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 7.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 639 |
| 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 Tuta if
- You want the Tuta 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 Tuta 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 Tuta
Tuta is an open source, end to end encrypted email, calendar and contacts service for individuals and teams who need private communication to work across every device they own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Tuta more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and Tuta has 7,925. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Tuta free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tuta under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Tuta?
certificates is written in Go and Tuta 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 Tuta?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (8,885 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tuta if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.