head to head · open source
certificates vs Wire
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars, 616 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Wire has 2,556 stars, 180 forks, 173 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. certificates leads on adoption by 254% (9,037 vs 2,556 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Wire is written in various languages under GPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Wire 7%. 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 | Wire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 2.6K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-01-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 616 | ⑂ 180 |
| 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 Wire if
- You want the Wire feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- You evaluated both and Wire 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 Wire
Wire™ Open source The privacy page and the privacy and security whitepapers explain the details of the encryption algorithms and protocols used. For licensing information, see the attached LICENSE file and the list of third party licenses at wire.com. If you compile the open source software that we make available from time to time to develop your own mobile, desktop or web application, and cause that application to connect to our servers for any purposes, we refer to that resulting application as an “Open Source App”. All Open Source Apps are subject to, and may only be used and/or commercialized in accordance…
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Wire more popular?
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars and Wire has 2,556. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Wire free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Wire under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Wire?
certificates is written in Go and Wire in various languages. 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 Wire?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (9,037 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Wire if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.