cert-manager vs EJBCA

cert-manager is a free, open-source tool for obtaining and managing X.509 certificates on Kubernetes and OpenShift. It requests certificates from public or private issuers, keeps them valid, and attempts renewal before expiration. The project automates TLS certificate issuance for Kubernetes Ingress and supports private-PKI certificates for pod-to-pod mutual TLS. Documented authority options include Let’s Encrypt, HashiCorp Vault, CyberArk Certificate Manager, and private PKI. Installation can use kubectl-applied manifests, Helm, Flux, or Argo CD. Related projects include istio-csr, approver-policy, Kubernetes CSI drivers, csi-driver-spiffe, and trust-manager; trust-manager distributes X.509 trust bundles and can run independently. cert-manager publishes threat-model and hardening guidance covering secrets, RBAC, networking, and Kubernetes configuration. Its default Helm values prioritize installation ease and backward compatibility over hardened production security. The project has no LTS releases, though each release is supported until the second subsequent version.

EJBCA is open-source PKI and Certificate Authority software for managing certificates, registration, enrollment, and validation. A single installation can host multiple independent PKIs separated through CA, RA, and VA modules. Certificate validation uses OCSP and CRL, and enrollment options listed for Community and Enterprise include CMP, SCEP, EST, ACME, SOAP API, and REST APIs. Community Edition can be deployed with Helm, as a container, or from source, with Helm and Ansible playbooks available for automating setup and configuration. Its stated use cases include internal PKIs, DevOps workflows, industrial environments, IoT devices, and national eIDs. Community is free under LGPL version 2.1 or later for learning, testing, and prototyping, but is not intended for production because it lacks production audit, compliance, SLA, high-availability, and security capabilities. Enterprise adds advanced PKI functionality and professional support with an SLA; a 30-day trial is available through AWS or Azure marketplaces.