EZCA vs step-ca
EZCA
keytos.iostep-ca
smallstep.comSide by side
| Figure | EZCA | step-ca |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $200/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Public Key Infrastructure Software | 8.4 (#4) | 8.2 (#7) |
| Support | Basic includes support within one business day, Premium includes 24/7 support within 24 hours, and Private Infrastructure includes 24/7 support within one hour. | Open-source users are directed to community Discord support, with optional paid support contracts available from Smallstep. |
| What it does | EZCA is a cloud PKI service for running and scaling certificate authorities without operating the PKI infrastructure yourself. | step-ca is an online certificate authority for automated X.509 and SSH certificate management. |
Plans
EZCA
- Basic$200 a month
- Premium$500 a month
- Self-Hosted Licensing$3,000 a month
- Private Infrastructure$6,000 a month
step-ca
- step-ca (open source)Free
- step-ca open sourceFree
- Smallstep PlatformPriced on request
In their own words
EZCA
EZCA is a cloud PKI service for running certificate authorities without operating the underlying PKI infrastructure yourself. It issues certificates through ACME, EST, and SCEP, and provides APIs for applications and workflows. Certificate uses include users, devices, applications, Wi-Fi, VPN, web services, and IoT, including device authentication for Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Central. Integrations include Azure, Entra ID, Intune, Azure Key Vault, and Azure applications; Intune and Jamf are supported for device certificates. EZCA can chain to an existing on-premises CA or bring an AD CS CA into a cloud setup. The maker says its CAs are HSM-backed, with Basic using FIPS 140-3 Level 2 and Premium Level 3. CA changes, requests, and approvals are logged for export to a preferred SIEM, and revocation checks use CRLs and OCSP. Basic costs $200 a month per CA, and a 30-day trial is available; there is no free plan. Plans differ in throughput, support, availability, and infrastructure options.
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.