acme.sh vs Canary Tokens
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
acme.sh
Pure shell ACME client for TLS certificates
VS
Canary Tokens
Generates lightweight, embedded honeypot triggers called canary tokens
| Feature | acme.sh | Canary Tokens |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Shell | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 32 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 47,426 | ★ 2,978 |
| First released | 2016 | 2026 |
| Replaces | Certbot | — |
Why pick each one
Choose acme.sh if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 47.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Shell
Choose Canary Tokens if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Python
Frequently asked questions
Is acme.sh or Canary Tokens better?
acme.sh is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Canary Tokens if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are acme.sh and Canary Tokens free and open-source?
Yes. acme.sh is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Canary Tokens under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run acme.sh and Canary Tokens with Docker?
acme.sh: check the project docs for container support. Canary Tokens: yes.