Let's Encrypt vs ManageEngine Key Manager Plus
Let's Encrypt
letsencrypt.org
ManageEngine Key Manager Plus
manageengine.comSide by side
| Figure | Let's Encrypt | ManageEngine Key Manager Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $39.58/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 8 |
| Spec score · Certificate Management Software | 8.6 (#5) | 8.9 (#4) |
| Company size | LinkedIn lists ISRG as having 11–50 employees. | LinkedIn lists ManageEngine as privately held with 5,001–10,000 employees. |
| Documentation | The official documentation covers onboarding, ACME clients, rate limits, staging, certificate policy, challenge types, profiles, revocation, compatibility and integration guidance. | The vendor documentation hub provides online help, quickstart material, FAQs, system requirements, security specifications, case studies, tutorials and release notes. |
| Headquarters | LinkedIn lists San Francisco, California as ISRG headquarters. | Pleasanton, California, United States |
| Intended users | The service is available to people and organizations worldwide that need certificates for domain-named servers, including web, mail, and FTP servers. | The product is positioned for enterprises seeking centralized management of certificates and machine identities across their IT infrastructure. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.8 out of 5 from 22 reviews. | 4.5 out of 5 from 3 reviews |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 2.2 out of 5 from 20 reviews. | 3.2 out of 5 from 15 reviews for ManageEngine overall |
| Support | Let’s Encrypt does not offer direct subscriber support and points users to its documentation and community support forums. | Support is offered through on-premises and cloud email addresses, telephone callback options, forums and FAQs. |
| What it does | Let's Encrypt is a free, automated, open certificate authority that provides TLS certificates for websites. | Key Manager Plus is a web-based system for discovering, consolidating, creating, deploying, rotating, renewing, monitoring and auditing SSH keys and SSL/TLS certificates. |
Plans
Let's Encrypt
- Let's Encrypt certificatesFree
- Let's Encrypt certificatesFree
- Short-lived certificatesFree
ManageEngine Key Manager Plus
- Free EditionFree
- On-premises license (25 managed keys)$59 a month
- Subscription — 25 keys$475 a year
- On-premises license (25 managed keys)$599 a year
- On-premises perpetual license (25 managed keys)$1,188, paid once
- Perpetual — 25 keys$1,188, paid once
- Subscription — 1,000 keys$2,645 a year
- Perpetual — 1,000 keys$6,613, paid once
In their own words
Let's Encrypt
Let’s Encrypt is a global Certificate Authority that provides SSL/TLS certificates for HTTPS connections. The ACME protocol verifies control of a domain, and compatible clients can automate issuance, management, and renewal. Its client directory includes Apache HTTP Server, Caddy, nginx, Kubernetes, Docker, and Windows/IIS environments. Certificates are Domain Validation only; Let’s Encrypt says it does not plan to issue Organization Validation or Extended Validation certificates. Wildcard certificates are available through the DNS-01 challenge. Standard certificates last 90 days, with an optional six-day lifetime; these periods cannot be adjusted. Subscribers generate and manage private keys on their own servers. Issued and revoked certificates are publicly recorded, and the service says its certificates are trusted by most browsers and operating systems. Certificates cost nothing. A registered domain can receive up to 50 certificates every seven days under published rate limits. Direct subscriber support is not offered.
ManageEngine Key Manager Plus
ManageEngine Key Manager Plus centralizes SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle management across enterprise networks, from discovery and acquisition to deployment, renewal, and expiry tracking. It finds certificates across endpoints and stores, including Microsoft CA, self-signed, public CA, mail server, load balancer, and AWS-hosted certificates. Renewal can be automated, with expiry alerts sent by email, SNMP traps, or syslog. Listed public CA integrations include Let's Encrypt, DigiCert, GlobalSign, RapidSSL, GoDaddy, and Thawte. It also manages SSH and PGP keys in a digital-key vault. Audit features cover key and certificate operations, privileged-session video, and activity reports. Controls include role-based access, two-factor authentication, SAML single sign-on, audit logging, and external storage for the master encryption key. The product is offered as SaaS and on premises. A free plan and 30-day trial are listed. The on-premises license for 25 managed keys is $59.00 per month, billed monthly.