DigiCert Private CA vs step-ca
DigiCert Private CA
digicert.comstep-ca
smallstep.comSide by side
| Figure | DigiCert Private CA | step-ca |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 3 |
| Spec score · Public Key Infrastructure Software | 7.4 (#15) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Integrations | Private CA integrates with existing PKI tools and infrastructure, REST API workflows, and DigiCert Trust Lifecycle Manager. | Documented integrations include Kubernetes cert-manager, Envoy SDS, ACME clients, OIDC providers, PKCS#11, Google Cloud KMS, AWS KMS and YubiKey PIV. |
| Purpose | DigiCert Private CA builds and operates privately trusted PKI for an organization’s users, devices, applications, and digital assets across on-premises and cloud environments. | step-ca is an online Certificate Authority for secure, automated X.509 and SSH certificate management. |
| Support | DigiCert provides PKI specialists for installation, migration, and other support, with support documents and Monday-Friday 24/7 specialist availability. | Open-source users are directed to community Discord support, with optional paid support contracts available from Smallstep. |
Plans
step-ca
- step-ca (open source)Free
- step-ca open sourceFree
- Smallstep PlatformPriced on request
In their own words
DigiCert Private CA
DigiCert Private CA has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
step-ca
step-ca is an online Certificate Authority for automating X.509 and SSH certificate management. It issues X.509 certificates for TLS, mutual TLS, document signing and authentication, as well as SSH certificates for users and hosts. Provisioners can authorize issuance through ACME challenges, OIDC tokens, cloud instance identity documents and short-lived JWK tokens. Automated issuance and renewal are supported for clients, servers and Kubernetes workloads, alongside passive revocation. Templates can customize SANs or OIDs, restrict domains or key sizes, and create longer certificate chains. For CA signing-key protection, step-ca integrates with Google Cloud KMS, AWS KMS, Azure Key Vault, PKCS#11 HSMs, TPM 2.0 and YubiKey PIV. Its intended PKI design uses an offline root CA and a configured intermediate CA that issues end-entity certificates. Installation options include macOS, Windows, Linux, Kubernetes and Docker, and database choices include Badger, BoltDB, MySQL and PostgreSQL. The open-source plan costs nothing. Community help is available through Discord, with dedicated support contracts from Smallstep.