Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

AWS Certificate Manager VS Let's Encrypt

Compare AWS Certificate Manager VS Let's Encrypt and see what are their differences

AWS Certificate Manager logo AWS Certificate Manager

AWS Certificate Manager from Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Let's Encrypt logo Let's Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt is a free, automated, and open certificate authority brought to you by the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG).
  • AWS Certificate Manager Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-15
  • Let's Encrypt Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12

AWS Certificate Manager features and specs

  • Automated Certificate Management
    AWS Certificate Manager automates the creation, renewal, and deployment of SSL/TLS certificates, reducing manual effort and the risk of human error.
  • Seamless Integration
    AWS Certificate Manager integrates easily with other AWS services such as Elastic Load Balancing (ELB), Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon API Gateway, simplifying the process of securing web applications.
  • Free Public Certificates
    AWS offers free public SSL/TLS certificates through AWS Certificate Manager, allowing users to secure their domains without additional cost.
  • Enhanced Security
    Automated renewal and deployment of certificates help ensure that your applications and services remain secure and compliant with industry standards.
  • Scalability
    AWS Certificate Manager can handle a large number of certificates, making it suitable for enterprises with many domains and subdomains.

Possible disadvantages of AWS Certificate Manager

  • AWS Ecosystem Dependency
    AWS Certificate Manager is deeply integrated with AWS services, which can be a limitation for businesses that utilize multi-cloud or hybrid cloud strategies.
  • Limited Customization
    Users have less control over certificate details and configurations compared to managing their own certificates manually or through other certificate authorities.
  • Proprietary Limitations
    AWS Certificate Manager's certificates can only be used with supported AWS services, which restricts their use in non-AWS environments.
  • Region Availability
    Some AWS regions may have limited support or features for AWS Certificate Manager compared to others, which can affect global deployment strategies.
  • Learning Curve
    New users may find it challenging to understand and utilize all the features and integrations provided by AWS Certificate Manager without sufficient AWS knowledge.

Let's Encrypt features and specs

  • Free of Charge
    Let's Encrypt provides SSL/TLS certificates at no cost, making it an economical choice for individuals and businesses.
  • Automated Certificate Issuance and Renewal
    The process of obtaining and renewing certificates can be automated using the ACME protocol, reducing manual intervention and administrative overhead.
  • Ease of Use
    Let's Encrypt simplifies the process of enabling HTTPS for websites, even for users with limited technical expertise.
  • Security
    Let's Encrypt certificates provide strong encryption, improving the security of data transmitted between clients and servers.
  • Widely Recognized
    Certificates issued by Let's Encrypt are trusted by all major web browsers and operating systems.
  • Promotes Secure Web Practices
    By making SSL/TLS certificates freely available, Let's Encrypt encourages more websites to adopt HTTPS, contributing to a more secure internet.

Possible disadvantages of Let's Encrypt

  • Short Duration of Certificates
    Let's Encrypt certificates are valid for only 90 days, requiring more frequent renewals compared to traditional certificate authorities.
  • Limited Support Options
    Let's Encrypt relies on community support and documentation, and does not offer dedicated customer support for troubleshooting and assistance.
  • No Extended Validation (EV) Certificates
    Let's Encrypt does not issue Extended Validation (EV) certificates, which provide additional verification and a higher level of trust for business websites.
  • Potential for Misuse
    Since certificates are issued for free and with minimal validation, there is a risk that cybercriminals might use them for phishing or other malicious activities.
  • No Wildcard Certificates for Multi-Level Subdomains
    While Let's Encrypt supports wildcard certificates for single-level subdomains, it doesn't support them for nested subdomains (e.g., *.sub.example.com).
  • Reliance on Third-Party Tools for Automation
    Users may need to rely on third-party tools or scripts for automation, which could introduce additional complexity or security risks.

Analysis of AWS Certificate Manager

Overall verdict

  • AWS Certificate Manager is an excellent choice, especially for AWS users. It offers robust security features, ease of integration, and automation, which collectively enhance an organization's ability to manage certificates effectively. Organizations that use AWS infrastructure benefit significantly from ACM's seamless integration with other services within the AWS ecosystem.

Why this product is good

  • AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) is widely regarded as a reliable and efficient service for managing SSL/TLS certificates. It simplifies the process of deploying certificates on AWS resources, ensures secure communication for web applications, and handles certificate renewals automatically. Integration with other AWS services is seamless, which enhances security and reduces administrative burdens. The service also supports both public and private certificates, making it versatile for various use cases.

Recommended for

    ACM is highly recommended for organizations and developers who utilize AWS services extensively and need a streamlined, secure method to manage SSL/TLS certificates. It is ideal for those who want to minimize the operational overhead of certificate management and leverage AWS's scalable infrastructure for secure deployments.

Analysis of Let's Encrypt

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Let's Encrypt is a good choice for many website owners looking to implement HTTPS. It is trusted by major web browsers and has gained a strong reputation for reliability and ease of use.

Why this product is good

  • Let's Encrypt is widely considered a good option for SSL/TLS certificates because it provides free, automated, and open certificate issuance, which makes it accessible and convenient for website owners to secure their domains. It's designed to eliminate the complexity and costs typically associated with obtaining and renewing SSL certificates. Its easy integration with various web server software and support for automated renewals via the Certbot tool further enhances its appeal.

Recommended for

    Let's Encrypt is recommended for small to medium-sized websites, blogs, personal projects, non-commercial sites, and anyone looking to quickly and easily obtain SSL/TLS certificates without incurring costs. Larger enterprises or businesses with specific security and compliance requirements might need additional features provided by commercial certificate authorities.

AWS Certificate Manager videos

How can I add certificates for websites to the ELB using AWS Certificate Manager?

Let's Encrypt videos

No Let's Encrypt videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to AWS Certificate Manager and Let's Encrypt)
Network & Admin
100 100%
0% 0
Security & Privacy
23 23%
77% 77
Domain Name Registrar
46 46%
54% 54
Identity And Access Management

User comments

Share your experience with using AWS Certificate Manager and Let's Encrypt. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Let's Encrypt seems to be a lot more popular than AWS Certificate Manager. While we know about 341 links to Let's Encrypt, we've tracked only 25 mentions of AWS Certificate Manager. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

AWS Certificate Manager mentions (25)

  • Building My Cloud Resume: A Step-by-Step Journey
    To ensure my website is secure, I used AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to provision an SSL/TLS certificate for my domain. With HTTPS enabled, my visitors can be confident that their connection to my resume site is secure. ACM simplified the process of managing the certificate, and I configured CloudFront to use it, providing a secure browsing experience. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • Deploy a Static React Site Using AWS S3 and CloudFront
    In this tutorial, I will walk you through building a quick static site by doing a static build using ReactJS & create-react-app, then show you how to deploy that static site on AWS using S3 buckets as well as how to cache it & add SSL certificates with CloudFront CDN & Certificate Manager. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Authenticating users in the load balancer with Cognito
    Because of that, we'll need a valid public certificate, which we can request in Certificate Manager for free. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How to maintain my SSL cert after xferring to AWS?
    Check out Amazon certificate manager (ACM) . Essentially, you can have free public certificates for use with Amazon services with auto renewal. You don't have to use route 53 as your registrar but you do have to prove domain ownership in order to get certificates. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Static Website Infrastructure on AWS with Terraform
    AWS Certificate Manager for securing the website and managing the ssl certificate. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

Let's Encrypt mentions (341)

  • Don't Get Rate-Limited: Use Let's Encrypt Staging
    Autocert is a Pomerium feature that automatically provisions and renews TLS certificates for your routes using Let’s Encrypt. No manual cert management, no copying files around — just tell Pomerium to handle it and it will issue valid certificates on the fly. - Source: dev.to / 3 days ago
  • EU OS for the Public Sector
    > speaking about it in webinars and various conferences That's unfortunately the feeling I got from the landing page, lots of talking, bureaucracy and buzzword bingo and not much "doing". I might be wrong. For comparison https://letsencrypt.org, not a single mention of "webinars" or "stakeholders". - Source: Hacker News / 8 days ago
  • Cloudflare Tunnel for Home Assistant
    The good news is that the times when SSL certificates were a luxury feature are gone. Let's Encrypt makes them available to everybody for free. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to Chat with Gemini 2.5 Pro from VSCode via AI Studio (Free and Unlimited)
    Create a local domain and generate SSL certificates for it using Let's Encrypt, and use it for my server. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Understanding Secure Communication: Encryption, Hashing, and Certificates
    Leverage existing trusted Certificate Authorities (Let’s Encrypt, DigiCert) or internal CAs for internal setups. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing AWS Certificate Manager and Let's Encrypt, you can also consider the following products

Google Authenticator - Google Authenticator is a multifactor app for mobile devices.

OpenSSL - OpenSSL is a free and open source software cryptography library that implements both the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, which are primarily used to provide secure communications between web browsers and …

Authy - Best rated Two-Factor Authentication smartphone app for consumers, simplest 2fa Rest API for developers and a strong authentication platform for the enterprise.

Ensighten - Ensighten provides enterprise tag management solutions that enable businesses manage their websites more effectively.

Azure Multi-Factor Authentication - Azure Multi-Factor Authentication helps safeguard access to data and applications while meeting user demand for a simple sign-in process.

Certbot - Automatically enable HTTPS on your website with EFF's Certbot, deploying Let's Encrypt certificates.