Comparison of cryptography libraries

The tables below compare cryptography libraries that deal with cryptography algorithms and have application programming interface (API) function calls to each of the supported features.

Cryptography libraries

Name of implementation

Initiative

Main implementation language

Open-source software

Software license

Latest release

Botan

Jack Lloyd

C++

Yes

Simplified BSD

3.2.0 (October 9, 2023; 7 months ago^[1]) [±]

Bouncy Castle

Legion of the Bouncy Castle Inc.

Java, C#

Yes

MIT License

Java	1.77 / November 13, 2023; 6 months ago (2023-11-13)^[2]
Java LTS	BC-LJA 2.73.5 / March 1, 2024; 2 months ago (2024-03-01)^[3]
Java FIPS	BC-FJA 1.0.2.4 / September 28, 2023; 7 months ago (2023-09-28)^[4]
C#	2.3.0 / February 5, 2024; 3 months ago (2024-02-05)^[5]
C# FIPS	BC-FNA 1.0.2 / February 28, 2023; 14 months ago (2023-02-28)^[6]

BSAFE

Dell, formerly RSA Security

Java, C, Assembly

No

Proprietary

Crypto-C Micro Edition: 4.1.5 (December 17, 2020; 3 years ago^[7]) [±]

Micro Edition Suite: 4.6.2 (May 2, 2023; 12 months ago (2023-05-02)^[8]) [±]
Micro Edition Suite 5.0.2.1 (September 18, 2023; 8 months ago (2023-09-18)^[9]) [±]
Crypto-J: 7.0 (September 7, 2022; 20 months ago (2022-09-07)^[10]) [±]

6.3 (April 4, 2023; 13 months ago (2023-04-04)^[11]) [±]

cryptlib

Peter Gutmann

C

Yes

Sleepycat License or commercial license

3.4.5 (2019; 5 years ago^[12]) [±]

Crypto++

The Crypto++ project

C++

Yes

Boost| (all individual files are public domain)

Jan 10, 2023 (8.9.0)

GnuTLS

Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, Simon Josefsson

C

Yes

LGPL-2.1-or-later

3.8.5^[13]

2024-04-04

Java's default JCA/JCE providers

Oracle

Java

Yes

GNU GPL v2 and commercial license

22.0.1 (April 19, 2024; 33 days ago) [±]

21.0.0 LTS (September 19, 2023; 8 months ago (2023-09-19)) [±]
17.0.6 LTS (February 18, 2023; 15 months ago (2023-02-18)) [±]
11.0.17 LTS (October 18, 2022; 19 months ago (2022-10-18)^[14]) [±]
8u401 LTS (January 16, 2024; 4 months ago (2024-01-16)^[15]) [±]

LibreSSL

OpenBSD Foundation

C

Yes

Apache 1.0

3.9.2^[16]

2024-05-12

Libgcrypt

GnuPG community and g10code

C

Yes

GNU LGPL v2.1+

stable	1.10.3 / November 14, 2023; 6 months ago (2023-11-14)^[17]
LTS	1.8.11 / November 16, 2023; 6 months ago (2023-11-16)^[18]

libsodium

Frank Denis

C

Yes

ISC

Sep 13, 2023 (1.0.19)

Mbed TLS

Arm Limited

C

Yes

Apache 2.0

3.0.0 (July 7, 2021; 2 years ago^[19]) [±]

2.27.0 (July 7, 2021; 2 years ago (2021-07-07)) [±]
2.16.11 (July 7, 2021; 2 years ago (2021-07-07)) [±]

NaCl

Daniel J. Bernstein, Tanja Lange, Peter Schwabe

C

Yes

Public domain

February 21, 2011^[20]

Nettle

C

Yes

GNU GPL v2+ or GNU LGPL v3

3.5.1 (June 27, 2019; 4 years ago^[21]) [±]

Network Security Services (NSS)

Mozilla

C

Yes

MPL 2.0

Standard	3.84 / October 12, 2022; 19 months ago (2022-10-12)^[22]
Extended Support Release	3.79.1 / August 18, 2022; 21 months ago (2022-08-18)^[22]

OpenSSL

The OpenSSL Project

C

Yes

Apache 2.0

3.3.0^[23]

2024-04-09

wolfCrypt

wolfSSL, Inc.

C

Yes

GNU GPL v2 or commercial license

5.6.4 (October 30, 2023; 6 months ago^[24]) [±]

FIPS 140

This table denotes, if a cryptography library provides the technical requisites for FIPS 140, and the status of their FIPS 140 certification (according to NIST's CMVP search, modules in process list and implementation under test list).

Implementation	FIPS 140-2 mode	FIPS 140-2 validated	FIPS 140-3 validated
Botan	No	No	No
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes^[25]	In process^[26]
BSAFE	Yes	Yes^[27]^[28]	In process^[26]
cryptlib	Yes	No	No
Crypto++	No	No^[a]	No
GnuTLS	No	Yes^[29]^[b]	In process^[30]
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	No	No^[31]^[c]	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes^[32]^[d]	In process^[30]
libsodium	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	No	No	No
NaCl	No	No	No
Nettle	No	No	No
Network Security Services (NSS)	Yes	Yes^[33]^[e]	In process^[30]
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes^[34]^[f]	In process^[30]
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes^[35]	In process^[26]

Key operations

Key operations include key generation algorithms, key exchange agreements, and public key cryptography standards.

Public key algorithms

Implementation	RSA	DSA	ECDSA	EdDSA	Ed448	DH	ECDH	ECIES	ElGamal	NTRU (IEEE P1363.1)	DSS
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
GnuTLS	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[a]	No	Yes	No	Yes
libsodium	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Elliptic-curve cryptography (ECC) support

Implementation	NIST	SECG	ECC Brainpool	Curve25519	Curve448	GOST R 34.10^[36]	SM2
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
BSAFE	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
GnuTLS	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
libsodium	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

Public key cryptography standards

Implementation	PKCS #1	PKCS #5,^[37] PBKDF2	PKCS #8	PKCS #12	IEEE P1363	ASN.1
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE Crypto-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes^[a]	No	Yes	Yes
GnuTLS
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]
libsodium	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Nettle	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes

Hash functions

Comparison of supported cryptographic hash functions. Here hash functions are defined as taking an arbitrary length message and producing a fixed size output that is virtually impossible to use for recreating the original message.

Implementation	MD5	SHA-1	SHA-2	SHA-3	RIPEMD-160	Tiger	Whirlpool	BLAKE2	GOST R 34.11-94^[38] (aka GOST 34.311-95)	GOST R 34.11-2012 (Stribog)^[39]	SM3
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE Crypto-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
GnuTLS
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
libsodium	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No

MAC algorithms

Comparison of implementations of message authentication code (MAC) algorithms. A MAC is a short piece of information used to authenticate a message—in other words, to confirm that the message came from the stated sender (its authenticity) and has not been changed in transit (its integrity).

Implementation	HMAC-MD5	HMAC-SHA1	HMAC-SHA2	Poly1305	BLAKE2-MAC
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE Crypto-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GnuTLS
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
libsodium	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Block ciphers

Table compares implementations of block ciphers. Block ciphers are defined as being deterministic and operating on a set number of bits (termed a block) using a symmetric key. Each block cipher can be broken up into the possible key sizes and block cipher modes it can be run with.

Block cipher algorithms

Implementation	AES	3DES	Camellia	Blowfish	Twofish	IDEA	CAST5	ARIA	GOST 28147-89^[40] / GOST R 34.12-2015 (Magma^[41] & Kuznyechik^[42])	SM4
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle^[43]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE Crypto-J	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
cryptlib^[44]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial^[a]	Yes
GnuTLS	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
libsodium	Partial^[b]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No

Cipher modes

Implementation	ECB	CBC	OFB	CFB	CTR	CCM	GCM	OCB	XTS	AES-Wrap	Stream	EAX
Botan	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
GnuTLS
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
libsodium	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Stream ciphers

The table below shows the support of various stream ciphers. Stream ciphers are defined as using plain text digits that are combined with a pseudorandom cipher digit stream. Stream ciphers are typically faster than block ciphers and may have lower hardware complexity, but may be more susceptible to attacks.

Implementation	RC4	HC-256	Rabbit	Salsa20	ChaCha	SEAL	Panama	WAKE	Grain	VMPC	ISAAC
Botan	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Bouncy Castle	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE Crypto-J	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
GnuTLS
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Libgcrypt	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
libsodium	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Nettle	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No

Hardware-assisted support

These tables compare the ability to use hardware enhanced cryptography. By using the assistance of specific hardware, the library can achieve greater speeds and/or improved security than otherwise.

Smart card, SIM, HSM protocol support

Implementation	PKCS #11	PC/SC	CCID
Botan	Yes	No	No
Bouncy Castle	Yes^[a]	No	No
BSAFE	Yes^[b]	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	No	No
Crypto++	No	No	No
GnuTLS	Yes	No	No
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes	No^[c]	No^[c]
Libgcrypt	Yes^[45]	Yes^[46]	Yes^[46]
libsodium	No	No	No
Mbed TLS	Yes^[47]	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes^[47]	No	No
wolfCrypt	Yes	No	No

General purpose CPU, platform acceleration support

Implementation	AES-NI	SSSE3, SSE4.1	AVX, AVX2	AVX-512	RDRAND	VIA PadLock	Intel QuickAssist	ARMv7-A NEON	ARMv8-A cryptography instructions	Power ISA v2.03 (AltiVec^[a])	Power ISA v2.07 (e.g., POWER8 and later^[a])
Botan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BSAFE	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]	Yes^[b]	No	Yes^[b]	No	No	No	Yes^[b]	No	No
cryptlib	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Crypto++	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes^[c]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GnuTLS	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Java's default JCA/JCE providers	Yes^[d]	Yes^[d]	Yes^[d]	Yes^[d]	Yes^[d]	No	No	No	Yes^[d]	No	Yes^[d]
Libgcrypt^[48]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
libsodium	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSL	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^[e]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
wolfCrypt	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes^[49]	Yes	Yes^[50]	No	No

Code size and code to comment ratio

Implementation	Source code size (kSLOC = 1000 lines of source code)	Code to comment lines ratio
Botan	133^[51]	4.55^[51]
Bouncy Castle	1359^[52]	5.26^[52]
BSAFE Crypto-J	271^[a]	1.3^[a]
cryptlib	241	2.66
Crypto++	115^[53]	5.74^[53]
GnuTLS	363^[54]	7.30^[54]
Java's default JCA/JCE providers
Libgcrypt	216^[55]	6.27^[55]
libsodium	44^[56]	21.92^[56]
Mbed TLS	105^[57]	33.9^[57]
Nettle	111^[58]	4.08^[58]
OpenSSL	472^[59]	4.41^[59]
wolfCrypt	39	5.69

Portability

Implementation	Supported operating system	Thread safe
Botan	Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD, Solaris, AIX, QNX, Haiku	Yes
Bouncy Castle	General Java API: J2ME, Java Runtime Environment 1.1+, Android. Java FIPS API: Java Runtime 1.5+, Android. C# API (General & FIPS): CLR 4.
BSAFE Crypto-J	Solaris, Linux, Android, FreeBSD, AIX, 32 and 64-bit Windows, macOS (Darwin)	Yes
cryptlib	AMX, ARINC 653, BeOS, ChorusOS, CMSIS-RTOS/mbed-rtos, DOS, DOS32, eCOS, embOS, FreeRTOS/OpenRTOS, uItron, MQX, MVS, Nucleus, OS/2, Palm OS, QNX Neutrino, RTEMS, SMX, Tandem NonStop, Telit, ThreadX, uC/OS II, Unix (AIX, FreeBSD, HP-UX, Linux, macOS, Solaris, etc.), VDK, VM/CMS, VxWorks, Win16, Win32, Win64, WinCE/PocketPC/etc, XMK	Yes
Crypto++	Unix (AIX, OpenBSD, Linux, MacOS, Solaris, etc.), Win32, Win64, Android, iOS, ARM	Yes^[a]
GnuTLS	Runs on most Unix platforms and Windows^[60]	?
Libgcrypt	All 32- and 64-bit Unix Systems (Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, macOS etc.), Win32, Win64, WinCE, and more	Yes^[61]
libsodium	macOS, Linux, OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD, Android, iOS, 32 and 64-bit Windows (Visual Studio, MinGW, C++ Builder), NativeClient, QNX, JavaScript, AIX, MINIX, Solaris	Yes
Mbed TLS	Win32/64, Unix Systems, embedded Linux, Micrium's μC/OS, FreeRTOS	?
OpenSSL	Solaris, IRIX, HP-UX, MPE/iX, Tru64, Linux, Android, BSD (OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, DragonflyBSD), NextSTEP, QNX, UnixWare, SCO, AIX, 32 and 64-bit Windows (Visual Studio, MinGW, UWIN, CygWin), UEFI, macOS (Darwin), iOS, HURD, VxWorks, uClinux, VMS, DJGPP (DOS), Haiku	Yes
wolfCrypt	Win32/64, Linux, macOS, Solaris, ThreadX, VxWorks, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, embedded Linux, WinCE, Haiku, OpenWRT, iPhone (iOS), Android, Nintendo Wii and Gamecube through DevKitPro, QNX, MontaVista, NonStop, TRON/ITRON/μITRON, Micrium's μC/OS, FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS, Freescale MQX, Nucleus, TinyOS, HP-UX	Yes

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