# Sequoia PGP

12 Hacker News commenters recommended Sequoia PGP and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free Rust implementation of OpenPGP, recommended as a modern replacement for older PGP tools. Critics say it is not fully compatible with the wider PGP base.

## Why people recommend it

- Recommended replacement for older PGP tools (2 comments): "sq (sequoia) is compatible and is available in your favorite distro. It's the recommended replacement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409099)) "Apt is being migrated to Sequoia, which is way better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46911658))
- Compatible enough with GnuPG (2 comments): "sq (sequoia) is compatible and is available in your favorite distro. It's the recommended replacement." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46409099)) "it seemed compatible enough with GnuPG" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46498425))
- Clean Rust reimplementation of OpenPGP (2 comments): "a sane, clean room re-implementation of OpenPGP in Rust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487500)) "Lots of actively developed rust implementations like rPGP, rsop, rpgpie, sequioa." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48298420))
- Reasonable defaults and good testing (2 comments): "sequoia's defaults are reasonable as far as I remember" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46488242)) "very well made and well tested" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46048336))

## What people warn about

- Not compatible with most PGP deployments (2 comments): "But you're no longer compatible with the overwhelming majority of PGP deployments. So what's the point?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46492874)) "now you're not compatible with the rest of the installed base of PGP" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46490528))
- Fails to fix known PGP problems (2 comments): "why put up with all the PGP problems that Sequoia can't address?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46493613)) "Sequioa hasn't fixed the attack from the beginning of the talk" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46404724))
- Security flaws in its code (2 comments): "discovered multiple vulnerabilities in cryptographic utilities, namely in GnuPG, Sequoia PGP, age, and minisign" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46454543)) "That's not a Rust problem, that's a sequoia problem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45791725))
- Replacing GnuPG risks untested code (2 comments): "I really hope they don't replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45782823)) "replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45782299))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [age encryption tool](https://hackerapproved.com/p/age.md): 49 recommend
- [GnuPG](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnupg.md): 40 recommend
- [PGP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pgp.md): 38 recommend
- [GPG](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gpg.md): 23 recommend
- [Cryptomator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cryptomator.md): 18 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Sequoia PGP", https://hackerapproved.com/p/sequoia-pgp/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).