head to head · open source
certificates vs Zen
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars, 616 forks, 299 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Zen has 4,347 stars, 145 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. certificates leads on adoption by 108% (9,037 vs 4,347 stars). certificates is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Zen is written in Go under MIT. certificates has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Zen 3%. Zen 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 | Zen | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.0K | ★ 4.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 616 | ⑂ 145 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick certificates if
- You weight community size — 9.0K 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 Zen if
- You want the Zen feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Zen fits your workflow better
About certificates
step ca step ca is an online certificate authority for secure, automated certificate management for DevOps. It's the server counterpart to the step CLI tool for working with certificates and keys. Both projects are maintained by Smallstep Labs. You can use step ca to: Issue HTTPS server and client certificates that work in browsers (RFC5280 and CA/Browser Forum compliance) Issue TLS certificates for DevOps: VMs, containers, APIs, database connections, Kubernetes pods... Issue SSH certificates: For people, in exchange for single sign on identity tokens For hosts, in exchange for cloud instance identity documents…
read the full certificates overview →
About Zen
Zen: Your Comprehensive Ad Blocker and Privacy Guard There is, simply, no way, to ignore privacy. Because a citizenry’s freedoms are interdependent, to surrender your own privacy is really to surrender everyone’s. Edward Snowden, Permanent Record Website • Mastodon • Bluesky • Discord • Documentation Zen is an open source system wide ad blocker and privacy guard for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It works by setting up a proxy that intercepts HTTP requests from all applications, and blocks those serving ads, tracking scripts that monitor your behavior, malware, and other unwanted content. By operating at the system…
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Frequently asked questions
Is certificates or Zen more popular?
certificates has 9,037 GitHub stars and Zen has 4,347. certificates has the larger community by that measure.
Are certificates and Zen free?
Both are open source. certificates is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zen under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between certificates and Zen?
certificates is written in Go and Zen in Go. 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 Zen?
Choose certificates if you want the larger community (9,037 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Zen if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.