head to head · open source
Signal vs ejbca-ce
Signal has 29,575 GitHub stars, 6,933 forks, 498 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. ejbca-ce has 967 stars, 166 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Signal leads on adoption by 2,958% (29,575 vs 967 stars). Signal is written in Kotlin under AGPL-3.0; ejbca-ce is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. Signal has attracted 23% as many forks as stars, ejbca-ce 17%. Signal 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
| Signal | ejbca-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 967 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | Kotlin | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-30 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.9K | ⑂ 166 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Signal if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ejbca-ce if
- You want the ejbca-ce feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-2.1 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and ejbca-ce fits your workflow better
About Signal
Signal Android Signal is a simple, powerful, and secure messenger that uses your phone's data connection (WiFi/4G/5G) to communicate securely. Millions of people use Signal every day for free and instantaneous communication anywhere in the world. Send and receive high fidelity messages, participate in HD voice/video calls, and explore a growing set of new features that help you stay connected. Signal’s advanced privacy preserving technology is always enabled, so you can focus on sharing the moments that matter with the people who matter to you. Currently available on the Play Store and signal.org. Also available…
read the full Signal overview →
About ejbca-ce
EJBCA Community Note: We take the security of EJBCA and the trust of our users seriously. If you believe you have identified a security vulnerability in EJBCA, please report it responsibly by contacting us at security@primekey.com. EJBCA Community Edition is not intended for production use. For PKI production deployments, use Keyfactor EJBCA Enterprise Edition. Welcome to the EJBCA Community EJBCA is a public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificate authority (CA) solution and one of the longest running CA software projects. It is platform independent and covers the full certificate lifecycle, from enrollment…
read the full ejbca-ce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Signal or ejbca-ce more popular?
Signal has 29,575 GitHub stars and ejbca-ce has 967. Signal has the larger community by that measure.
Are Signal and ejbca-ce free?
Both are open source. Signal is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ejbca-ce under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Signal and ejbca-ce?
Signal is written in Kotlin and ejbca-ce 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, Signal or ejbca-ce?
Choose Signal if you want the larger community (29,575 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ejbca-ce if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.