Certbot vs EJBCA

Certbot is free, open-source software from the Electronic Frontier Foundation for enabling HTTPS on websites that administrators manage themselves. It obtains Let’s Encrypt certificates and can install them on a web server automatically in many cases. The command-line tool names Apache and Nginx integrations, along with webroot and standalone methods. DNS validation avoids requiring an inbound connection from Let’s Encrypt, so it does not depend on an existing HTTP site or an open port 80. Certbot renews certificates when less than one-third of their lifetime remains; for certificates lasting 10 days or less, renewal occurs when half their lifetime remains. It is generally run on a Unix-like server, often remotely over SSH, and is intended for administrators comfortable with command-line work on a dedicated server, VPS or cloud-hosted server. The project points users to its documentation and the Let’s Encrypt community forum for help.

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.