head to head · open source
certificates vs docker-nginx-certbot
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. docker-nginx-certbot has 1,205 stars, 195 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. certificates leads on adoption by 637% (8,885 vs 1,205 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; docker-nginx-certbot is written in Shell under MIT. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, docker-nginx-certbot 16%. docker-nginx-certbot was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (acme, certificate-authority), 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
| certificates | docker-nginx-certbot | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 195 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certificates if
- You weight community size — 8.9K 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 docker-nginx-certbot if
- You want the docker-nginx-certbot feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and docker-nginx-certbot fits your workflow better
About certificates
step ca is an open source online certificate authority that issues X.509 and SSH certificates and runs as an ACME server, built for DevOps teams that need automated certificate management without a commercial PKI contract.
read the full certificates overview →
About docker-nginx-certbot
docker nginx certbot is an MIT licensed Docker image that bundles Nginx with the certbot ACME client so that websites automatically obtain and renew free Let's Encrypt TLS certificates, and it is aimed at self hosters and small teams who run their own Nginx servers.
read the full docker-nginx-certbot overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or docker-nginx-certbot more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and docker-nginx-certbot has 1,205. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and docker-nginx-certbot free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and docker-nginx-certbot under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and docker-nginx-certbot?
certificates is written in Go and docker-nginx-certbot in Shell. 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 docker-nginx-certbot?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (8,885 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose docker-nginx-certbot if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.