certbot
Certbot is EFF's tool to obtain certs from Let's Encrypt and (optionally) auto-enable HTTPS on your server. It can also act as a client for any other CA that uses the ACME protocol.
A command-line tool from the EFF that automatically gets free HTTPS certificates from Let's Encrypt and configures your web server to use them, replacing a previously complex manual process with a single command.
Certbot is a command-line tool from the EFF that automates obtaining HTTPS certificates and optionally configuring your server to use them. Normally, setting up HTTPS — the secure connection that shows a padlock in your browser — requires manually requesting a certificate from a certificate authority and updating your server settings. Certbot handles both steps: it communicates with Let's Encrypt or any other certificate authority that supports the ACME protocol to get a valid certificate, and can configure your server to use it automatically. Written in Python, it is designed to make HTTPS setup as simple as running a single command, removing the manual steps that often make secure web hosting difficult for non-experts.
The README does not provide further detail about its features, architecture, supported platforms, or use cases, so a complete explanation is not possible from the provided data alone.
Where it fits
- Automatically obtain and install a free HTTPS certificate on an Nginx or Apache server with a single command
- Set up automatic certificate renewal so your site never shows a security warning due to an expired certificate
- Get a wildcard certificate for all subdomains of your domain from Let's Encrypt
- Add HTTPS to a self-hosted web app running on a Linux server without paying for a certificate