head to head · open source
Zen vs certstrap
Zen has 4,225 GitHub stars, 143 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. certstrap has 2,454 stars, 212 forks, 32 open issues and last shipped 8 months ago. Zen leads on adoption by 72% (4,225 vs 2,454 stars). Zen is written in Go under MIT; certstrap is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Zen has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, certstrap 9%. Zen 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
| Zen | certstrap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 4.2K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-02-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 143 | ⑂ 212 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zen if
- You weight community size — 4.2K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- 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 Zen
Zen is an open source desktop application written in Go for Windows, macOS, and Linux under the MIT license. It operates as a system wide ad blocker and privacy guard, so it applies to traffic from applications on the machine rather than only to browser tabs. It lives in the desktop security and privacy ecosystem, where users want filtering without browser extensions.
About certstrap
certstrap is a simple certificate manager written in Go that bootstraps a private certificate authority and public key infrastructure, aimed at operators and developers who need to issue TLS certificates without wrestling with openssl.
read the full certstrap overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zen or certstrap more popular?
Zen has 4,225 GitHub stars and certstrap has 2,454. Zen has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zen and certstrap free?
Both are open source. Zen is licensed under MIT and certstrap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zen and certstrap?
Zen is written in Go 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, Zen or certstrap?
Choose Zen if you want the larger community (4,225 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose certstrap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.