Certora — Public Certificate Verification Page (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) vs. renting SaaS
Self-hosted certificate verification for training providers and awarding bodies: every certificate carries a unique code an employer can check on a verify page you host yourself.
The subscription math
Certora — Public Certificate Verification Page (PHP + MySQL, Self-Hosted) — yours
$79.00
one-time · self-hosted · your data, your server
Buy once
Certifier — rented
Professional $79/month billed monthly ($67/month billed annually), 1,000 credentials a year; Advanced $399/month ($339/month annually), 5,000 a year; free tier 250 a year; Enterprise "Contact sales" [1]
Break-even: 1 month
of Certifier equals the one-time price.
Assumption: The entry PAID tier, month-to-month, and its allowance resets every year. The arithmetic is the whole comparison: Certifier Professional is $79 a month, Certora is $79 once, for certificates you issue from your own server with no annual ceiling.
Savings calculator
SaaS figures use the cited plan price above (see the sources below); per-seat plans scale by the seat count from the same cited price. This is arithmetic, not a quote.
Why owning beats renting here
- One payment. No per-month, per-seat, or per-location fees — the license is perpetual.
- Your data stays on your server. Customer records never live in someone else's cloud.
- No plan ceilings. Records, users, and usage are limited by your hosting, not a pricing tier.
- It keeps working if the vendor doesn't. Self-hosted software can't be sunset out from under you.
Fair trade-offs: you host it, you back it up, and updates are yours to apply — see the product page for honest limitations.
Sources
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Certifier — price checked 2026-08-31 —
source
“'$79/month' ... '$67/month billed annually' ... '1000' ... '$399/month' ... '$339/month billed annually' ... 'Contact sales'”
Competitor prices change — always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown.