Comparison

CertLocker vs Keyfactor

Keyfactor is enterprise PKI infrastructure. CertLocker is an infrastructure trust operations platform for SRE and DevOps teams. They solve adjacent problems for different team sizes and budget profiles.

Keyfactor is an enterprise certificate lifecycle management platform designed for large organisations with complex PKI requirements — multiple internal CAs, HSM integration, compliance reporting, and dedicated PKI engineering teams. CertLocker is a focused infrastructure trust operations platform for SRE and DevOps teams that need certificate lifecycle, ACME automation, secrets management, SSH access control, and endpoint monitoring without enterprise-scale overhead or cost.

Use Keyfactor when...

  • You run a large enterprise PKI programme with multiple internal CAs
  • You have dedicated PKI engineers and a compliance programme requiring detailed reporting
  • You need HSM integration and multi-CA orchestration at scale
  • You are in a regulated industry with existing enterprise PKI investment and budget

Use CertLocker when...

  • You are an SRE or DevOps team managing certificates on bare metal, VMs, or hybrid infrastructure
  • You want ACME automation, SSH access management, and secrets versioning in one platform
  • You need HAProxy native ACME integration without a separate orchestration layer
  • Enterprise PKI pricing and implementation timescales are not appropriate for your team

Feature comparison

Capability CertLocker Keyfactor
Certificate inventory and tracking
ACME automation (Let's Encrypt, internal CA) ✓ Built-in ✓ Via integrations
HAProxy native ACME integration ✓ Purpose-built ✗ Not native
SSH certificate issuance and JIT access ✓ Built-in ✗ Separate product required
Secrets management with version history ✓ Built-in ✗ Separate product required
Endpoint TLS probes ✓ Built-in ✓ Available
Multi-CA orchestration at scale ⚠ Single-CA focus ✓ Core capability
HSM integration
Enterprise compliance reporting ⚠ Audit trails included ✓ Extensive
Setup complexity 🟢 Hours 🔴 Weeks to months
Pricing model Team-based Enterprise contract
Bare metal / on-premise first

The honest context

Keyfactor is a serious enterprise product with genuine depth in PKI orchestration. If you have 50,000 certificates across 20 internal CAs, dedicated PKI engineers, and a compliance team that needs detailed reporting, Keyfactor is built for that problem. CertLocker is not.

CertLocker is built for the infrastructure team that has 200–2,000 certificates, runs on bare metal or hybrid cloud, and needs certificate lifecycle, ACME automation, SSH access management, and secrets in one place without hiring a PKI consultant or signing an enterprise contract.

The genuine overlap is in mid-market teams that have outgrown spreadsheets and Certbot but are not yet at enterprise PKI scale. In that range, Keyfactor brings more PKI depth; CertLocker brings SSH access, secrets versioning, HAProxy integration, and a faster path to operational value.

Related: CertLocker vs HashiCorp Vault · Replacing Vault for certificate management

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between CertLocker and Keyfactor?

Keyfactor is an enterprise certificate lifecycle management platform targeting large organisations with complex PKI requirements — multiple internal CAs, HSM integration, and compliance reporting. CertLocker is a focused infrastructure trust operations platform for SRE and DevOps teams that need certificate lifecycle, ACME automation, SSH access, and secrets versioning without enterprise-scale overhead.

When should I use Keyfactor instead of CertLocker?

Keyfactor is a better fit for large enterprise PKI programmes with multiple internal CAs, dedicated PKI engineers, HSM requirements, and compliance reporting needs at scale. It is particularly strong in regulated industries with existing enterprise PKI investment.

Is CertLocker cheaper than Keyfactor?

CertLocker is priced for infrastructure teams rather than enterprise PKI programmes. Keyfactor pricing is enterprise-contract based and typically involves significant per-certificate or per-endpoint fees. See CertLocker pricing for current plans.

Infrastructure trust for teams that ship infrastructure.

Certificate lifecycle, ACME automation, SSH access, secrets, and endpoint monitoring — without enterprise contract overhead.