# digicert

Source: https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/digicert/
Last updated: 2026-06-19
License: content by Start with Identity. Cite the source URL.

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## Overview

DigiCert (founded 2003, privately held by Clearlake, TA, and Crosspoint) is one of the largest publicly trusted certificate authorities and a serious certificate lifecycle management vendor. It issues TLS, code signing, document signing, and IoT device certificates, and its DigiCert ONE platform layers automation and management on top. Unlike pure orchestration tools in the [PKI and certificate lifecycle category](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/), DigiCert owns the trust anchor and the management layer, so it can be a single source for both.

## What it is good at

Public trust at global scale is the core asset: browser-trusted roots, high issuance reliability, and standing in the CA/Browser Forum. DigiCert ONE provides automated discovery, issuance, renewal, and revocation, ACME support, and strong [governance and audit](https://startwithidentity.com/guides/fundamentals/what-is-machine-identity/). It handles demanding use cases well, including code signing with hardware-backed keys, document signing, and IoT device identity at volume. Support and account management are strong, which matters when a certificate outage is a business outage.

## Where it falls short

DigiCert is a premium provider, and cost is the recurring trade-off versus free or low-cost CAs for simple public TLS. The breadth of DigiCert ONE means setup is more involved than buying a single cert. Teams that want a CA-agnostic layer over multiple issuers will find DigiCert most natural when DigiCert is the issuer.

## Pricing

Per-certificate pricing for individual certs, plus subscription and enterprise quotes for DigiCert ONE and CLM. Not the cheapest option for low volume. Model total cost across your certificate fleet with the [TCO calculator](https://startwithidentity.com/tools/tco-calculator/).

## Best for, and who should look elsewhere

Choose DigiCert when you need a trusted public CA plus capable lifecycle management from one vendor at enterprise scale. For free public TLS at small scale, use an ACME CA like Let's Encrypt. For pure CA-agnostic orchestration over multiple issuers, see [AppViewX](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/appviewx/) or [Keyfactor](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/keyfactor/); for internal private PKI, [Smallstep](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/smallstep/). [Sectigo](https://startwithidentity.com/vendors/pki/sectigo/) is a comparable commercial CA.

## Bottom line

A top choice when you want a globally trusted public CA and serious certificate lifecycle management under one roof, with budget to match.