head to head · open source
Certipy vs ejbca-ce
Certipy has 3,672 GitHub stars, 483 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. ejbca-ce has 952 stars, 160 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Certipy leads on adoption by 286% (3,672 vs 952 stars). Certipy is written in Python under MIT; ejbca-ce is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. Certipy has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, ejbca-ce 17%. ejbca-ce was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (pki), 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
| Certipy | ejbca-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.7K | ★ 952 |
| License | MIT | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Python | Java |
| Last push | 2026-07-30 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 483 | ⑂ 160 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Certipy if
- You weight community size — 3.7K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ejbca-ce if
- You want the ejbca-ce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and ejbca-ce fits your workflow better
About Certipy
Certipy is an open source Python toolkit, published under the MIT licence on PyPI as certipy ad , for enumerating and abusing Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), built for red teamers, penetration testers, and defenders who need to assess AD CS misconfigurations in Windows Active Directory environments.
read the full Certipy overview →
About ejbca-ce
EJBCA Community Edition is an LGPL licensed, Java based public key infrastructure and certificate authority package for anyone who wants to learn, test, or prototype certificate and PKI workflows without committing to a commercial PKI product.
read the full ejbca-ce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Certipy or ejbca-ce more popular?
Certipy has 3,672 GitHub stars and ejbca-ce has 952. Certipy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Certipy and ejbca-ce free?
Both are open source. Certipy is licensed under MIT and ejbca-ce under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Certipy and ejbca-ce?
Certipy is written in Python and ejbca-ce 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, Certipy or ejbca-ce?
Choose Certipy if you want the larger community (3,672 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ejbca-ce if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.