head to head · open source
certificates vs Wire
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Wire has 2,549 stars, 180 forks, 173 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. certificates leads on adoption by 249% (8,885 vs 2,549 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| certificates | Wire | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | — |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-01-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 180 |
| 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 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 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 Wire
Wire is an open source secure collaboration platform whose GitHub overview repository gathers code for clients, encryption, audio/video/signaling, server components, and protocol definitions. It lives in the security and privacy ecosystem, specifically data security and privacy.
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Data Security & Privacy projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Security & Privacy field.
Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Wire more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and Wire has 2,549. 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 (8,885 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.