head to head · open source
certificates vs Peergos
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars, 597 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Peergos has 2,524 stars, 199 forks, 103 open issues and last shipped yesterday. certificates leads on adoption by 252% (8,885 vs 2,524 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Peergos is written in Java under AGPL-3.0. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Peergos 8%. Peergos 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 | Peergos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.9K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 597 | ⑂ 199 |
| 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 Peergos if
- You want the Peergos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Peergos 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 Peergos
Peergos is a peer to peer secure file storage system, social network, and application protocol built in Java under AGPL 3.0. It lives in the IPFS, IPLD, and libp2p ecosystem and supports a private web where users control their data, decide where it is stored, and determine who can see it. The project addresses centralized services that can track users, expose personal data, and observe relationships or file contents without cryptographic access control.
read the full Peergos overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Peergos more popular?
certificates has 8,885 GitHub stars and Peergos has 2,524. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Peergos free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Peergos under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Peergos?
certificates is written in Go and Peergos 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, certificates or Peergos?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (8,885 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Peergos if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.