head to head · open source
certspotter vs ejbca-ce
certspotter has 1,174 GitHub stars, 104 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. ejbca-ce has 952 stars, 160 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. certspotter leads on adoption by 23% (1,174 vs 952 stars). certspotter is written in Go under MPL-2.0; ejbca-ce is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. certspotter has attracted 9% 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| certspotter | ejbca-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.2K | ★ 952 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 104 | ⑂ 160 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certspotter if
- You weight community size — 1.2K stars and counting
- You want the MPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 certspotter
Cert Spotter is a lightweight, open source Certificate Transparency log monitor from SSLMate that watches Certificate Transparency logs and alerts you when an SSL/TLS certificate is issued for any domain on your watch list, aimed at site operators, security teams, and PKI administrators who need to catch unauthorized certificates without operating a database.
read the full certspotter 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 →
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 certspotter or ejbca-ce more popular?
certspotter has 1,174 GitHub stars and ejbca-ce has 952. certspotter has the larger community by that measure.
Are certspotter and ejbca-ce free?
Both are open source. certspotter is licensed under MPL-2.0 and ejbca-ce under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certspotter and ejbca-ce?
certspotter is written in Go 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, certspotter or ejbca-ce?
Choose certspotter if you want the larger community (1,174 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose ejbca-ce if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.