head to head · open source
Tongsuo vs ejbca-ce
Tongsuo has 1,535 GitHub stars, 260 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. ejbca-ce has 952 stars, 160 forks, 19 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Tongsuo leads on adoption by 61% (1,535 vs 952 stars). Tongsuo is written in C under Apache-2.0; ejbca-ce is written in Java under LGPL-2.1. Tongsuo has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, ejbca-ce 17%. ejbca-ce was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cryptography, pki), 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
| Tongsuo | ejbca-ce | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.5K | ★ 952 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | LGPL-2.1 |
| Written in | C | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 260 | ⑂ 160 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Tongsuo if
- You weight community size — 1.5K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- 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 Tongsuo
Tongsuo (铜锁) is an open source C library of modern cryptographic primitives and secure communication protocols, developed under the OpenAtom Foundation, and it is built for teams that need Chinese commercial cryptography, TLS, PKI, and privacy preserving primitives from a single dependency.
read the full Tongsuo overview →
About ejbca-ce
EJBCA Community Edition is an LGPL licensed, Java based public key infrastructure and certificate authority package for anyone who wants to learn, test, or prototype certificate and PKI workflows without committing to a commercial PKI product.
read the full ejbca-ce overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tongsuo or ejbca-ce more popular?
Tongsuo has 1,535 GitHub stars and ejbca-ce has 952. Tongsuo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tongsuo and ejbca-ce free?
Both are open source. Tongsuo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ejbca-ce under LGPL-2.1. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tongsuo and ejbca-ce?
Tongsuo is written in C 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, Tongsuo or ejbca-ce?
Choose Tongsuo if you want the larger community (1,535 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ejbca-ce if its feature set, stack or LGPL-2.1 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.