# Mender vs uptane

**URL:** <https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Created:** [February 10, 2022, 6:11am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594 "2022-02-10T06:11:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 8\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abhilash-kv](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/abhilash-kv/32/1497_2.png) [@abhilash-kv](https://hub.mender.io/u/abhilash-kv)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 6:11am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/1 "2022-02-10T06:11:58Z")

</div>

Hello,

I have been evaluating some of the opensource products for secure OTA and got stuck on “OTA Community edition, aktualizr” and [mender.io](http://mender.io) .  
Could you pls help me to chose mender here 🙂 . How mender is better than other one?  
Is mender also based on uptane?

Thanks,  
Abhilash.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\
**Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 8:20am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/2 "2022-02-10T08:20:24Z")

</div>

Hello @abhilash-kv,

thanks a lot for your interest. From a very high level perspective I would say the main differences are:

1. Uptane is highly focused on ground vehicles - thats its mission statement, whereas mender is a solution for the whole IoT product space.
2. the Uptane/aktualizr combination that you mentioned seems to not offer any hosted, or ready to go offerings. With mender, you can start right away using a free account, and gradually upscale on the go, all the way to running your whole infrastructure on premise if needed.

For specific needs a more detailed comparison might be needed, but from an initial starting point I would say: give mender it a try. 🙂

If you have more questions, feel free to reach out.

Greetz,  
Josef

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abhilash-kv](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/abhilash-kv/32/1497_2.png) [@abhilash-kv](https://hub.mender.io/u/abhilash-kv)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 5:45am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/3 "2022-02-11T05:45:32Z")

</div>

Hi Josef,

Thanks for the quick response. Yes agreed the deployment was faster when I tried [mender.io](http://mender.io) opensource compared to the aktualizr.

One more question

- From security stand point how about mender ? whats the protocol used for delivering the payload?

Thanks,  
Abhilash.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 8:22am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/4 "2022-02-11T08:22:07Z")

</div>

Hi @abhilash-kv,

the transfer protocol between client and server is HTTPS. So the data payload is encrypted, and the origin is authenticated. For additional verification, you can opt in to signing of the payload that you are creating and deploying.

Greetz,  
Josef

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abhilash-kv](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/abhilash-kv/32/1497_2.png) [@abhilash-kv](https://hub.mender.io/u/abhilash-kv)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 8:44am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/5 "2022-02-11T08:44:42Z")

</div>

Hi Josef,

So except transport layer security , you are not providing any security for the payload by default?

Thanks,  
Abhilash.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 8:51am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/6 "2022-02-11T08:51:44Z")

</div>

@abhilash-kv

Well of what kind of “security” are you thinking? Any specific requirements you need to fulfill? Its hard to give a good answer here because I don’t know what you expect. Just try to elaborate on your usecase a bit and then I can relate it to what we are offering.

Greetz,  
Josef

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dellgreen](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/dellgreen/32/85_2.png) [@dellgreen](https://hub.mender.io/u/dellgreen)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 9:33am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/7 "2022-02-11T09:33:38Z")

</div>

If I recall, it uses, certificate based client/server authentication of which you need to authorise/pre-authorize the devices server side.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![TheYoctoJester](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/hub.mender.io/theyoctojester/32/1444_2.png) [@TheYoctoJester](https://hub.mender.io/u/TheYoctoJester)\
**Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 9:44am UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-vs-uptane/4594/8 "2022-02-11T09:44:20Z")

</div>

There is also the [mTLS authentication](https://docs.mender.io/development/server-integration/mutual-tls-authentication) available. But as the original question was explicitly about the “protocol of delivering the payload”, I would need more input on what might be needed beyond HTTPS-provided encryption and authentication.

Greetz,  
Josef
