Sequoia PGP
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 7 encryption tools by recommenders
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.
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.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Recommended replacement for older PGP tools
“sq (sequoia) is compatible and is available in your favorite distro. It's the recommended replacement.”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Gpg.fail” “Apt is being migrated to Sequoia, which is way better”
Comment from 6 Feb 2026 in “The RCE that AMD won't fix” Compatible enough with GnuPG
“sq (sequoia) is compatible and is available in your favorite distro. It's the recommended replacement.”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Gpg.fail” “it seemed compatible enough with GnuPG”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” Clean Rust reimplementation of OpenPGP
“a sane, clean room re-implementation of OpenPGP in Rust”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” “Lots of actively developed rust implementations like rPGP, rsop, rpgpie, sequioa.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Are we self-sovereign PKI yet?” Reasonable defaults and good testing
“sequoia's defaults are reasonable as far as I remember”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” “very well made and well tested”
Comment from 25 Nov 2025 in “APT Rust requirement raises questions”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Not compatible with most PGP deployments
“But you're no longer compatible with the overwhelming majority of PGP deployments. So what's the point?”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” “now you're not compatible with the rest of the installed base of PGP”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” Fails to fix known PGP problems
“why put up with all the PGP problems that Sequoia can't address?”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “The PGP Problem (2019)” “Sequioa hasn't fixed the attack from the beginning of the talk”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Gpg.fail” Security flaws in its code
“discovered multiple vulnerabilities in cryptographic utilities, namely in GnuPG, Sequoia PGP, age, and minisign”
Comment from 1 Jan 2026 in “A Vulnerability in Libsodium” “That's not a Rust problem, that's a sequoia problem.”
Comment from 2 Nov 2025 in “Hard Rust requirements from May onward” Replacing GnuPG risks untested code
“I really hope they don't replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “Hard Rust requirements from May onward” “replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 in “Hard Rust requirements from May onward”
Other encryption tools people recommend
The four most recommended other encryption tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| age encryption tool | 49 | 12 | 80% | 11 | — | Approved |
| GnuPG | 40 | 46 | 47% | 8 | — | — |
| PGP | 38 | 48 | 44% | 12 | 25 yrs3 owners | — |
| GPG | 23 | 29 | 44% | 11 | — | — |
| Sequoia PGPThis page | 12 | 5 | 71% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
23 of the 24 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“until Sequoia showed up, which was extremely late”
“Lots of actively developed rust implementations like rPGP, rsop, rpgpie, sequioa.”
“Apt is being migrated to Sequoia, which is way better”
“it seemed compatible enough with GnuPG”
“why put up with all the PGP problems that Sequoia can't address?”
“But you're no longer compatible with the overwhelming majority of PGP deployments. So what's the point?”
“now you're not compatible with the rest of the installed base of PGP”
“a viable one, and a suitable one for most of the manual CLI usage”
“It is not proprietary, it is not centralized and it is much better than GunPG”
“sequoia's defaults are reasonable as far as I remember”
“a sane, clean room re-implementation of OpenPGP in Rust”
“discovered multiple vulnerabilities in cryptographic utilities, namely in GnuPG, Sequoia PGP, age, and minisign”
“I think it ticks your boxes.”
“sq (sequoia) is compatible and is available in your favorite distro. It's the recommended replacement.”
“Sequioa hasn't fixed the attack from the beginning of the talk”
“Sequoia for example has been doing a great job and implements the latest version of the standard”
“also sequoia, minisign and age”
“very well made and well tested”
“There are plenty of benefits to using Sequoia which you can investigate now”
“That's not a Rust problem, that's a sequoia problem.”
“I really hope they don't replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that”
“Sequoia-PGP is 8 years old at this point, their 1.0 happened half a decade ago.”
“replace the audited and battle-tested GnuPG parts with some new-fangled project like that”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.