head to head · open source
Ente vs pki
Ente has 28,955 GitHub stars, 1,805 forks, 229 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pki has 509 stars, 162 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ente leads on adoption by 5,589% (28,955 vs 509 stars). Ente is written in Dart under AGPL-3.0; pki is written in Java under GPL-2.0. Ente has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, pki 32%. pki 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ente | pki | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 509 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Dart | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 162 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ente if
- You weight community size — 29K 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 pki if
- You want the pki feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and pki fits your workflow better
About Ente
Ente is a fully open source, end to end encrypted platform for storing photos, documents and credentials in the cloud, packaged as a monorepo of client apps and a server, and intended for people who want the features of Google Photos, Apple Photos and Authy without having to trust the service provider with their data.
About pki
Dogtag PKI is an enterprise class open source Certificate Authority suite, written in Java and licensed under GPL 2.0, for administrators who need to run their own certificate lifecycle infrastructure rather than buy it as a hosted service.
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Data Security & Privacy projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Data Security & Privacy field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ente or pki more popular?
Ente has 28,955 GitHub stars and pki has 509. Ente has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ente and pki free?
Both are open source. Ente is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and pki under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ente and pki?
Ente is written in Dart and pki in Java. 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 pki?
Choose Ente if you want the larger community (28,955 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose pki if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.