head to head · open source
Ente vs certstrap
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars, 1,893 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certstrap has 2,462 stars, 212 forks, 32 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ente leads on adoption by 1,112% (29,841 vs 2,462 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; certstrap is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, certstrap 9%. Ente was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (golang), 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
| Ente | certstrap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Dart | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.9K | ⑂ 212 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ente if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Dart
- 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 Ente
Fully open source end to end encrypted photos, authenticators and more. Ente Ente is a service that provides a fully open source, end to end encrypted platform for you to store your data in the cloud without needing to trust the service provider. On top of this platform, we have built three apps so far: Ente Photos (an alternative to Apple and Google Photos), Ente Locker (a safe space for your most important documents and credentials), and Ente Auth (a 2FA alternative to the deprecated Authy). This monorepo contains all our source code the client apps (iOS / Android / F Droid / Web / Linux / macOS / Windows) for…
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 Ente or certstrap more popular?
Ente has 29,841 GitHub stars and certstrap has 2,462. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and certstrap free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and certstrap under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ente and certstrap?
Ente is written in Dart 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, Ente or certstrap?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (29,841 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose certstrap if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.