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Dehydrated vs Certbot: catalog facts
Dehydrated	Certbot
Best for: Administrators who want a scriptable ACME client for TLS certificates	Best for: Server administrators adding free HTTPS to their own web servers
Free Free and open source under the MIT license.	Free Free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence; certificates from Let's Encrypt are free.
Command line	macOS, Linux, Command line
Supports ACME v2 and wildcard certificates Can renew and revoke certificates All 3 strengths for Dehydrated Supports ACME v2 and wildcard certificates Can renew and revoke certificates Implemented as a shell script with common system dependencies	Gets free HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt Can configure Apache and Nginx automatically All 3 strengths for Certbot Gets free HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt Can configure Apache and Nginx automatically Instruction generator tailored to server software and operating system
Requires OpenSSL and cURL	Requires comfort with the command line Needs shell access to the web server, which some hosts do not give
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: Apache-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Needs internet
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Dehydrated dehydrated.io Catalog checked October 8, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Certbot certbot.eff.org Catalog checked October 1, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.