How DigiCert and Let's Encrypt differ on deployment, pricing, openness and what each is actually built for.
| DigiCert | Let's Encrypt | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Public CA + CLM | Public CA (free) |
| Deployment | SaaS | SaaS (ACME) |
| How it works | Issues publicly trusted TLS, code-signing, S/MIME and document-signing certificates from its own roots. DigiCert ONE adds discovery, automation and policy enforcement across the estate, with ACME and REST APIs for issuance. | Issues domain-validated TLS certificates at no cost, exclusively through the ACME protocol. Short 90-day lifetimes force automation, which is the point: renewal is a cron job, not a calendar reminder. |
| Pricing* | From $218/yr (Basic OV) | Free |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Open source | — | Boulder (MPL-2.0) |
| Compliance | WebTrust, CA/B Forum, FIPS 140-2 (HSM-backed) | WebTrust, CA/B Forum |
| Best for | Enterprises needing public trust plus governance | Public web TLS on anything you can automate |
Choose DigiCert for enterprises needing public trust plus governance. Choose Let's Encrypt for public web tls on anything you can automate.
* Indicative list pricing (vendor documentation and public pricing pages, August 2026).