Keyfactor EJBCA®
Certificate lifecycle management (CLM) software
Confidentiality software
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What is Keyfactor EJBCA®
Keyfactor EJBCA® is a public key infrastructure (PKI) and certificate authority (CA) platform used to issue, manage, and revoke digital certificates for users, devices, and applications. It is commonly deployed by security and infrastructure teams that need to run an internal CA for enterprise, IoT, and regulated environments. The product supports on-premises and cloud deployments and is available in both open source (EJBCA Community) and commercial editions. It differentiates through its focus on operating a full CA/PKI stack rather than only providing certificate inventory and automation against third-party CAs.
Full CA/PKI capabilities
EJBCA provides core CA functions such as certificate issuance, revocation, and publication, along with RA-style workflows and policy controls. This makes it suitable for organizations that need to operate their own trust hierarchy rather than relying only on external certificate services. It can support multiple certificate profiles and use cases across enterprise and device identities. This scope is broader than tools that primarily focus on discovery and renewal automation.
Flexible deployment options
The platform supports on-premises deployments and can be run in customer-controlled environments, which is important for regulated or air-gapped scenarios. It is also available in commercial and open source forms, enabling different operating models and procurement approaches. Organizations can align deployment with internal security controls and data residency requirements. This flexibility can be advantageous compared with services that are tightly coupled to a single cloud provider.
Integrates with HSMs and ecosystems
EJBCA is designed to work with hardware security modules (HSMs) for protecting CA private keys and supporting stronger key management practices. It also integrates with common enterprise identity and infrastructure components used in PKI deployments. These integrations help teams operationalize certificate issuance for varied endpoints and applications. The product is often used as a foundational CA that other certificate automation tools can connect to.
Operational complexity of PKI
Running a CA/PKI requires careful design of hierarchies, policies, key ceremonies, and lifecycle processes, and EJBCA does not remove that inherent complexity. Teams typically need PKI expertise to deploy securely and maintain availability and compliance. Misconfiguration can have broad impact because the CA becomes a critical trust dependency. This can be heavier than adopting managed CA services where much of the infrastructure is abstracted.
CLM automation may require add-ons
While EJBCA covers CA functions, end-to-end certificate lifecycle automation across heterogeneous environments (discovery, agent-based deployment, and broad workflow orchestration) may require additional tooling or integration work. Organizations often pair a CA with separate CLM platforms to handle inventory, renewal orchestration, and application-specific deployment. This can increase total implementation effort compared with products that bundle CA and enterprise-wide automation in one console. The best-fit depends on whether the primary need is operating a CA or managing certificates across many systems.
Edition differences and licensing
Capabilities differ between the open source community edition and commercial offerings, which can affect supportability and feature availability. Organizations may need to evaluate which edition meets requirements for compliance, scale, and vendor support. Licensing and support terms can influence long-term operating cost and upgrade planning. This adds procurement and governance considerations beyond purely technical evaluation.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model (summary from Keyfactor official site): Mixed — usage-based (pay-as-you-go) for cloud/SaaS offerings; enterprise/appliance/software editions use custom licensing (contact sales).
Free tier/trial:
- EJBCA Community Edition: free, open-source (Community edition available for download).
- EJBCA Cloud / EJBCA Enterprise trial: free 30-day trial available via Azure/AWS marketplaces.
Details (from Keyfactor official pages & docs):
- EJBCA Cloud (EJBCA Enterprise in your cloud): "Pay-as-you-go" pricing; free 30-day trial in Azure/AWS. No public numeric prices listed on Keyfactor product page — customers are directed to try in marketplace or contact sales for plans or deployment sizing. (See Keyfactor EJBCA Cloud product page and try links.)
- EJBCA SaaS: SaaS-delivered EJBCA with pay-as-you-go, self-service portal and hosted options (AWS/Azure). No numeric prices shown on the product page; marketplace links provided for provisioning. (See Keyfactor EJBCA SaaS product page.)
- EJBCA Enterprise / Software / Hardware Appliance: Multiple appliance/software models and deployment sizes are documented (Starter, Professional, Scale, Enterprise), but Keyfactor’s official pages present model/spec tables and request-demo/contact-sales flows rather than public prices. Licensing for enterprise/appliance is custom and requires contacting Keyfactor. (See product and model-specification docs.)
Free tier/trial (explicit):
- Permanently free: EJBCA Community Edition (open-source, available on GitHub/Docker Hub/SourceForge).
- Time-limited trial: Free 30-day trial for EJBCA Cloud (and Enterprise evaluation via AWS/Azure marketplaces).
Example costs / numeric pricing:
- Keyfactor’s official product pages and documentation do not publish numeric list prices for EJBCA SaaS/Cloud/Enterprise; no per-certificate or per-instance prices are provided on the vendor site. Customers are directed to marketplaces (Azure/AWS) or to contact Keyfactor for licensing and pricing details.
Discounts / commitments:
- The official site mentions "no long-term commitment or contract requirements" for EJBCA Cloud and pay-as-you-go billing, but does not list public discount schedules or volume/term discounts.
Notes / references: All items above are taken exclusively from Keyfactor’s official product pages and documentation (EJBCA SaaS, EJBCA Cloud, EJBCA Enterprise product pages; Try EJBCA/30-day trial page; EJBCA Community release notes and download docs; Model specifications).
Seller details
Keyfactor, Inc.
Independence, Ohio, USA
2001
Private
https://www.keyfactor.com/
https://x.com/keyfactor
https://www.linkedin.com/company/keyfactor/
