head to head · open source
Tongsuo vs routinator
Tongsuo has 1,536 GitHub stars, 260 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. routinator has 573 stars, 86 forks, 34 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Tongsuo leads on adoption by 168% (1,536 vs 573 stars). Tongsuo is written in C under Apache-2.0; routinator is written in Rust under BSD-3-Clause. Tongsuo has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, routinator 15%. routinator 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 | routinator | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 1.5K | ★ 573 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 260 | ⑂ 86 |
| 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 routinator if
- You want the routinator feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and routinator 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 routinator
Routinator 3000 is a free, open source RPKI Relying Party written in Rust that validates RPKI data and serves it to routers, aimed at network operators and engineers running BGP who need to check route origin authorisations.
read the full routinator overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Tongsuo or routinator more popular?
Tongsuo has 1,536 GitHub stars and routinator has 573. Tongsuo has the larger community by that measure.
Are Tongsuo and routinator free?
Both are open source. Tongsuo is licensed under Apache-2.0 and routinator under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Tongsuo and routinator?
Tongsuo is written in C and routinator in Rust. 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 routinator?
Choose Tongsuo if you want the larger community (1,536 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose routinator if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.