What is Smallstep Certificates?
Smallstep Certificates is an open source certificate authority software that simplifies the issuance and management of TLS certificates across an organization's infrastructure.
It provides a CLI (command-line interface) and APIs to fully automate the TLS certificate lifecycle, from issuance and renewal to revocation. This eliminates the manual processes involved with traditional CAs.
Key capabilities and benefits of Smallstep Certificates include:
- Works as a private CA, allowing organizations to issue and control their own certificates
- Easy to operate CLI and simple APIs to automate certificate workflows
- Secure out-of-the-box configurations following best practices
- Modular architecture supports integration with hardware security modules like HSMs and YubiKey
- Detailed activity logs and health metrics for monitoring and auditing
- Built-in support for the ACME protocol to issue free certificates from Let's Encrypt
- Community or enterprise support options available
With its focus on automation and developer experience, Smallstep Certificates is well suited for organizations looking to scale certificate management securely and cost effectively.