We often get asked how wolfSSL compares to OpenSSL and what advantages it brings to a project if it replaces a current OpenSSL implementation. To give you a short comparison, see the points below.
• Size: With a 30-100kB build size and runtime memory usage between 3-36kB, wolfSSL can be up to 20 times smaller than OpenSSL. In an embedded environment where footprint size is critical or a large cloud environment where memory usage per connection makes a big impact on the performance and success of a project, wolfSSL is an optimal SSL and cryptography solution.
• Standards Support: wolfSSL is up-to-date with the most recent standards of TLS 1.2 and DTLS which OpenSSL has yet to address. With the recently-presented crack in TLS 1.0, your project should use either TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 for maximum security – both of which wolfSSL fully supports on both the client and server side.
• Progressive Cipher Support: wolfSSL is kept progressive with support for new and secure ciphers. wolfSSL includes some of the best current ciphers for streaming media support, including the HC-128 and RABBIT stream ciphers. Standard ciphers are supported as well including EDH on both the client and server side.
• Portability: wolfSSL is the leading SSL library for real-time, mobile, embedded, and enterprise systems, by virtue of its breadth of platform support and successful implementations. With a long list of supported platforms out of the box, your time to market can be decreased dramatically by using wolfSSL. OpenSSL requires porting to many platforms, which can cost your team both time and money.
• License: wolfSSL is dual licensed and available both under the GPLv2 as well as a standard commercial license. OpenSSL is available under a unique license from multiple sources.
• Support: wolfSSL was written from the ground up and is maintained and developed by the original developers. With a wolfSSL license comes one full year of support. Available directly through phone, email or the yaSSL product support forums, your questions are answered quickly and accurately to help you make progress on your project as quickly as possible.
• Ease of Use: OpenSSL is burdened with legacy code that must be maintained and kept up to date. wolfSSL was written from the beginning with developers in mind. Because of this mindset, wolfSSL has been developed with a simple and documented API, easy-to-use abstraction layers for OS, Custom I/O, and Standard C library, and clear usage examples.
If you have any further questions about how wolfSSL compares to OpenSSL, please let us know at info@yassl.com.