Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Smallstep Certificates VS Portecle

Compare Smallstep Certificates VS Portecle and see what are their differences

Smallstep Certificates logo Smallstep Certificates

A private certificate authority (X.509 & SSH) & ACME server for secure automated certificate management, so you can use TLS everywhere & SSO for SSH.

Portecle logo Portecle

Portecle is a user friendly GUI application for creating, managing and examining keystores, keys...
  • Smallstep Certificates Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-22
  • Portecle Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-06

Smallstep Certificates features and specs

No features have been listed yet.

Portecle features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Portecle provides a graphical user interface which makes it accessible for users who prefer not to work with command-line tools.
  • Comprehensive Functionality
    It supports a wide range of functionalities such as creating, examining, and modifying keystores, keys, certificates, certificate requests, and more.
  • Open Source
    Being an open-source tool, Portecle is free to use and allows users to modify and improve the software according to their needs.
  • Cross-Platform
    Portecle is a Java application, making it operable on any platform that supports Java, such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Possible disadvantages of Portecle

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Portecle may lack some advanced features and integrations that enterprise users might expect from more sophisticated key management tools.
  • Outdated Interface
    The user interface might feel outdated compared to more modern software, which can be less appealing to users who prioritize aesthetics.
  • Requires Java
    As Portecle is a Java application, users must have Java installed on their system, which could be seen as a downside for those wishing to avoid Java.
  • Maintenance and Support
    Being a community-driven open-source project, official support is limited, and updates might be less frequent compared to commercial software.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Smallstep Certificates and Portecle)
Identity And Access Management
Digital Signage
0 0%
100% 100
Web Development Tools
59 59%
41% 41
Content Management System

User comments

Share your experience with using Smallstep Certificates and Portecle. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Smallstep Certificates should be more popular than Portecle. It has been mentiond 10 times since March 2021. 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.

Smallstep Certificates mentions (10)

  • A convert from Judaism to Catholicism goes to r/Catholicism to ask if it would be appropriate to pass down a century old Jewish prayer shawl to his son. Not everyone is welcoming.
    Just a little heads up https://smallstep.com/certificates/. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Looking for an open source certificate management solution.
    Step-ca: Not web based, but the CLI is pretty user friendly: https://smallstep.com/certificates/. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Using k8s-apiserver as AAA server for microservices?
    I was just looking at https://smallstep.com/certificates a few days ago. It looks like they have an operator that fits your description as well as example docs for setting up inter-microservice mtls. Source: over 2 years ago
  • What are SSH Certificate Authority solutions?
    In the quick search I learned about Ssh cert authority which looks very manual and also like a dead project Smallstep's step-ca who put together very nice article about how to begin certificate authority process Netflix' BLESS is AWS only Cashier which also looks quite ok. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Quickly prototyping and testing TLS services with valid certs
    If you want something a little fancier (I.e. Get automatic certs with all that ACME goodness) check out SmallStep. This is next on my list of homelab projects. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

Portecle mentions (2)

  • How to install trusted CA certificate on Android device?
    Android stores CA certificates in its Java keystore in /system/etc/security/cacerts.bks. I copied the file to my computer, added my certificate using portecle 1.5 and pushed it back to the device. Source: about 2 years ago
  • IT Pro Tuesday #196 - Certificate Tool, Video Capture, Network Diagrams & More
    Portecle provides a user-friendly GUI for creating, managing and examining key- and certificate-related information. Allows you to easily interact with and keep track of you keystores, keys, certificates, certificate requests, certificate revocation lists and more. Appreciation for the recommendation goes to peanutbuttersmack. Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Smallstep Certificates and Portecle, you can also consider the following products

BastionXP - BastionXP Identity Based Infrastructure Access Platform is a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) / Certificate Authority (CA) that creates, signs and distributes SSH, SSL X.509 certificates to servers and users upon successful SSO login via OAuth or SAML

OpenXPKI - OpenXPKI is a software stack that provides all necessary components to manage keys and certificates...

PKI.js - PKIjs is a pure JavaScript library implementing the formats that are used in PKI applications (signing, encryption, certificate requests, OCSP and TSP requests/responses). It is built on WebCrypto (Web Cryptography API) and requires no plug-ins.

TinyCA - TinyCA is a simple graphical userinterface written in Perl/Gtk to manage a small CA (Certification...

Smallstep SSH - Single Sign-on SSH

EJBCA - EJBCA® is a PKI Certificate Authority software, built using Java (JEE) technology.