What is Certd used for?

Certd is an open-source tool that automates SSL certificate requests, renewals and deployment to servers and cloud services through pipelines. It is a good fit for automating certificate rotation across servers and deploying wildcard certificates to cloud services.

Is Certd open source?

Yes. Certd is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at certd/certd and is written mainly in JavaScript.

Yes. Certd is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Certd?

Yes. Certd can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.

What is Certd an alternative to?

Certd is an open-source alternative to Sectigo. Other open-source alternatives to Sectigo include Certimate, acme.sh and Certbot.

Is Certd actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Certd was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.44.4, published on 12 September 2026. The project has 5k stars on GitHub.

Certd: open-source alternative to Sectigo

About Certd

Certd is a free system for fully automatic SSL certificate management, built to keep website certificates from expiring. The name's trailing d borrows from the Linux daemon naming style. Its documentation is mainly in Chinese, with an English version available.

Its distinguishing idea is a pipeline model for requesting and deploying certificates. It supports domains from any registrar and several validation methods, including DNS-01, HTTP-01 and CNAME proxying, issues wildcard certificates covering multiple domains, and deploys renewed certificates through more than 110 plugins to hosts, Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, Synology and the Baota panel. Output formats include PEM, PFX, DER, JKS and P7B, and notifications go out by email, webhook, WeCom, DingTalk, Feishu and others.

Certd is licensed under AGPL-3.0, uses the ACME protocol, and runs on your own server. Renewal in practice means requesting a fresh certificate and redeploying it, which the pipelines automate. It suits administrators managing many domains who want to automate certificate rotation.

Key features

Automatic certificate request and renewal
DNS-01, HTTP-01 and CNAME validation
Wildcard certificate support
110+ deployment plugins
PEM, PFX, DER, JKS and P7B formats
Email and chat notifications

Good fit for

→Automating certificate rotation across servers
→Deploying wildcard certificates to cloud services

Built with: JavaScript
Tags: ssl; certificates; acme; automation; lets-encrypt; devops; self-hosted; wildcard

Certd: questions and answers

What is Certd used for?: Certd is an open-source tool that automates SSL certificate requests, renewals and deployment to servers and cloud services through pipelines. It is a good fit for automating certificate rotation across servers and deploying wildcard certificates to cloud services.
Is Certd open source?: Yes. Certd is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at certd/certd and is written mainly in JavaScript.
Is Certd free?: Yes. Certd is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Certd?: Yes. Certd can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
What is Certd an alternative to?: Certd is an open-source alternative to Sectigo. Other open-source alternatives to Sectigo include Certimate, acme.sh and Certbot.
Is Certd actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Certd was on 1 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.44.4, published on 12 September 2026. The project has 5k stars on GitHub.