What is the difference between a badge and a certificate?

Scope, mostly. A certificate marks completion of a programme; a badge marks one specific, named skill or milestone. A badge is also designed to be looked at rather than read, which is why it travels well on a profile or a signature block. Both are issued and verified identically here, so the choice is about what the achievement actually is, not about what the platform supports.

Are your badges Open Badges compliant?

Not currently. Our badges are signed, hosted credentials with their own verification page, which delivers the practical outcome Open Badges was designed for, but they do not carry the Open Badges metadata format and will not import into a backpack expecting it. If your accreditation or funding requires Open Badges specifically, tell us before you start, because that is a real requirement and we would rather say so up front.

Can we use our own badge artwork?

Yes, and it is the expected case. You supply the artwork for each badge award and we handle everything around it: the verification page, the QR code, the recipient's copies, and delivery. If you do not have a designer, we can produce the artwork with you before your first issuance.

Where can recipients display a badge?

Anywhere an image and a link go: LinkedIn, an email signature, a personal site, a CV. The badge image is what people see; the verification link is what makes it mean anything. Recipients get both a print-ready PDF and a high-resolution PNG.

Can one recipient hold several badges?

Yes. Recipients are identified by email address, so a person who earns four badges across two years holds four separate credentials under one record. Each has its own verification page and its own credential ID.

Digital badges

Digital badges people actually share, and strangers can actually check

A badge is a small, specific claim: this person can do this one thing. It travels further than a certificate because it is built to be looked at rather than read. And it is worth something only if the person looking can confirm it in a couple of seconds.

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When a badge is the honest unit

Plenty of achievements get a certificate because a certificate is what organisations know how to produce, not because a certificate is what they are. A two-hour workshop, a single competency, a stage passed on the way to something larger: issuing an A4 document for those quietly overstates them, and recipients can tell.

A badge is the right size for that. It names one thing, it is recognisable at thumbnail scale, and it sits naturally in the places people present themselves: a LinkedIn profile, an email signature, a conference bio. Reserve the certificate for the whole programme and the certificate means more. Where the award covers one narrow competence rather than a programme, the word for it is a micro-credential, which describes its scope rather than its shape.

Both are digital credentials in the general sense, and the mechanics are identical either way: same signing, same verification page, same permanent link. See the certificate generator for the document-shaped version. Choosing between them is a question about the achievement, not about the platform.

How badge issuing works

Badges issue exactly as certificates do. We set the award up — your artwork, the criteria, the signing key — and after that you can send us the list or sign in and issue under it yourself. We send the recipient mailing either way.

Step 1 You supply the artwork: One image per badge award, in your own design. We set it up, and can produce the artwork with you if you do not have a designer.
Step 2 The recipient list arrives: Names and email addresses for whoever earned it — sent to us, or pasted in yourself once the award is set up. The same list either way, because badges and certificates are the same machinery underneath.
Step 3 We issue and deliver: Each recipient gets their badge as a PDF and a high-resolution PNG, an email announcing it, and a permanent verification page of their own.

What every badge carries

A verification page per badge: Not a shared page for the award. One public page per recipient, showing who earned it, from whom, and when, with the signature checked in the visitor's browser.
A QR code on the artwork: Overlaid automatically at the bottom-right corner, so a badge that ends up printed on a programme or a poster is still checkable by anyone holding it.
A cryptographic signature: The recipient, award, issuing organisation, and issue date are signed with your organisation's Ed25519 key at issuance. Alter any of them afterwards and the check fails.
A permanent link: The badge's address is derived from its credential ID and never moves, so a link a recipient posts today still resolves after a correction, a rebrand, or three years.

A badge image on its own is decoration, and anybody can save one and post it. What makes it a credential is the page behind it. Credential verification covers what a person checking one sees, and the security page sets out the signing scheme and its limits.

About Open Badges

Open Badges is a standard for describing a badge in a machine-readable way so that badges from different issuers can be collected, displayed, and checked by software that has never heard of any of them.

We do not currently issue Open Badges. Our badges are signed, hosted credentials with their own verification page. In practice that produces the outcome most issuers are after, which is a badge a recipient can share and a stranger can confirm. It is not the Open Badges metadata format, and a badge backpack expecting that format will not import one.

Whether that matters depends entirely on whether something is asking you for it. If an accreditor, a funder, or a partner platform has named Open Badges as a requirement, it is a real requirement and you should weigh it before choosing anyone. Open Badges 3.0 explained for issuers sets out what the standard covers, what changed in the latest version, and how to tell whether you actually need it. If you are weighing us against a platform built on the standard, the Credly comparison puts that gap at the top rather than in the footnotes.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a badge and a certificate?: Scope, mostly. A certificate marks completion of a programme; a badge marks one specific, named skill or milestone. A badge is also designed to be looked at rather than read, which is why it travels well on a profile or a signature block. Both are issued and verified identically here, so the choice is about what the achievement actually is, not about what the platform supports.
Are your badges Open Badges compliant?: Not currently. Our badges are signed, hosted credentials with their own verification page, which delivers the practical outcome Open Badges was designed for, but they do not carry the Open Badges metadata format and will not import into a backpack expecting it. If your accreditation or funding requires Open Badges specifically, tell us before you start, because that is a real requirement and we would rather say so up front.
Can we use our own badge artwork?: Yes, and it is the expected case. You supply the artwork for each badge award and we handle everything around it: the verification page, the QR code, the recipient's copies, and delivery. If you do not have a designer, we can produce the artwork with you before your first issuance.
Where can recipients display a badge?: Anywhere an image and a link go: LinkedIn, an email signature, a personal site, a CV. The badge image is what people see; the verification link is what makes it mean anything. Recipients get both a print-ready PDF and a high-resolution PNG.
Can one recipient hold several badges?: Yes. Recipients are identified by email address, so a person who earns four badges across two years holds four separate credentials under one record. Each has its own verification page and its own credential ID.

See a badge end to end

We will issue one to you using your own artwork, then send you the link an employer would open, so you can judge the result rather than the description.

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