head to head · open source
Certipy vs certstrap
Certipy has 3,715 GitHub stars, 490 forks, 25 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. certstrap has 2,462 stars, 212 forks, 32 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Certipy leads on adoption by 51% (3,715 vs 2,462 stars). Certipy is written in Python under MIT; certstrap is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Certipy has attracted 13% as many forks as stars, certstrap 9%. certstrap 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
| Certipy | certstrap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 3.7K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-30 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 490 | ⑂ 212 |
| 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 certstrap if
- You want the certstrap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and certstrap fits your workflow better
About Certipy
Certipy AD CS Attack & Enumeration Toolkit Certipy is a powerful offensive and defensive toolkit for enumerating and abusing Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS). It helps red teamers, penetration testers, and defenders assess AD CS misconfigurations including full support for identifying and exploiting all known ESC1 ESC17 attack paths. [!WARNING] Use only in environments where you have explicit authorization. Unauthorized use may be illegal. 🔍 Features 🔎 Discover Certificate Authorities and Templates 🚩 Identify misconfigurations 🔐 Request and forge certificates 🎭 Perform authentication using…
read the full Certipy overview →
About certstrap
certstrap A simple certificate manager written in Go, to bootstrap your own certificate authority and public key infrastructure. Adapted from etcd ca. certstrap is a very convenient app if you don't feel like dealing with openssl, its myriad of options or config files. Common Uses certstrap allows you to build your own certificate system: 1. Initialize certificate authorities 2. Create identities and certificate signature requests for hosts 3. Sign and generate certificates Certificate architecture certstrap can init multiple certificate authorities to sign certificates with. Users can make arbitrarily long…
read the full certstrap overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Certipy or certstrap more popular?
Certipy has 3,715 GitHub stars and certstrap has 2,462. Certipy has the larger community by that measure.
Are Certipy and certstrap free?
Both are open source. Certipy is licensed under MIT and certstrap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Certipy and certstrap?
Certipy is written in Python and certstrap in Go. 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 certstrap?
Choose Certipy if you want the larger community (3,715 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose certstrap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.