head to head · open source
certificates vs Cinny
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars, 616 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Cinny has 3,968 stars, 608 forks, 354 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certificates leads on adoption by 128% (9,037 vs 3,968 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Cinny is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Cinny 15%. Cinny 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
| certificates | Cinny | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 616 | ⑂ 608 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certificates if
- You weight community size — 9.0K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cinny if
- You want the Cinny feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Cinny fits your workflow better
About certificates
step ca step ca is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps. It's the server counterpart to the step CLI tool for working with certificates and keys. Both projects are maintained by Smallstep Labs. You can use step ca to: Issue HTTPS server and client certificates that work in browsers (RFC5280 and CA/Browser Forum compliance) Issue TLS certificates for DevOps: VMs, containers, APIs, database connections, Kubernetes pods... Issue SSH certificates: For people, in exchange for single sign on identity tokens For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents…
read the full certificates overview →
About Cinny
Cinny A Matrix client focusing primarily on simple, elegant and secure interface. The main goal is to have an instant messaging application that is easy on people and has a modern touch. Roadmap Contributing [!IMPORTANT] We are currently in the process of [replacing] the matrix js sdk with our own SDK. As a result, we will not be accepting any pull requests until further notice. Thank you for your understanding. [replacing]: Getting started The web app is available at [app.cinny.in] and gets updated on each new release. The dev branch is continuously deployed at [dev.cinny.in] but keep in mind that it could have…
read the full Cinny overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Cinny more popular?
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars and Cinny has 3,968. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Cinny free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Cinny under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Cinny?
certificates is written in Go and Cinny in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, certificates or Cinny?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (9,037 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Cinny if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.