head to head · open source
certspotter vs routinator
certspotter has 1,175 GitHub stars, 104 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. routinator has 573 stars, 86 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. certspotter leads on adoption by 105% (1,175 vs 573 stars). certspotter is written in Go under MPL-2.0; routinator is written in Rust under BSD-3-Clause. certspotter has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, routinator 15%. routinator 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
| certspotter | routinator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.2K | ★ 573 |
| License | MPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-13 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 104 | ⑂ 86 |
| 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 routinator if
- You want the routinator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and routinator 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 routinator
Routinator 3000 is a free, open source RPKI Relying Party written in Rust that validates RPKI data and serves it to routers, aimed at network operators and engineers running BGP who need to check route origin authorisations.
read the full routinator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certspotter or routinator more popular?
certspotter has 1,175 GitHub stars and routinator has 573. certspotter has the larger community by that measure.
Are certspotter and routinator free?
Both are open source. certspotter is licensed under MPL-2.0 and routinator under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certspotter and routinator?
certspotter is written in Go and routinator in Rust. 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 routinator?
Choose certspotter if you want the larger community (1,175 stars) or its MPL-2.0 licence terms. Choose routinator if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.