Certum Reviews 8

Avoid this system at all costs.

This is most complicated, user-unfriendly and tedious system I have had the displeasure to work with.

Unfortunately, the Polish government TELL you that you need to use this system to sign official documents. Apparently, showing a passport and hand-signing is no longer allowed!

Given all the slick ID verification and esigning solutions available in the world, it is amazing that this company still trades. It is also mind-boggling that the Polish government feel that it is appropriate to use such an poorly built system. Not a great look for such a good country.

I can only talk about my experiences with getting a code signing certificate and card reader for a Mac using Apple Silicon and macOS 26.3.

It does not work ! Not all their software has been adapted for Apple Silicon. Certum Tools which is a java program won't work on apple silicon. The other applications are poorly translated from Polish into English and it's not possible to install a certificate from their website onto your local machine for reasons unknown. Support seems to be low quality and resorts to "reinstall" and don't understand the problems with CPU architecture. Had to return the lot and request a refund. Postage at my own expense.

Posting this as a warning for anyone considering the Certum EV Code Signing Kit.

TL;DR:
The EV kit never worked, despite months of troubleshooting with Certum support. When I requested a refund, they refused, citing the 14-day policy even though the product had never been functional and support themselves dragged the process out.

Full story:
I purchased Certum’s EV Code Signing Certificate + hardware kit for production use. From day one, it did not work.

Over several months, I followed every instruction provided by Certum support:

Reinstalled and updated proCertum CardManager repeatedly

Installed official smart card reader drivers

Tested on multiple environments, including a brand-new Windows PC and macOS

Tried different USB ports, no hubs

Generated and submitted multiple diagnostic reports

The diagnostics consistently showed the smart card as present but non-responsive, which strongly points to a hardware-level defect.

Despite this:

Support kept looping me through the same troubleshooting steps

No working replacement was provided

The EV kit never reached a usable state for code signing

After months of delay and blocked releases, I switched to another EV provider. Code signing worked immediately under the same environment. That confirmed the issue was specific to Certum’s hardware.

At that point, I requested a refund.

Certum refused, stating that more than 14 days had passed since purchase.

What they ignored:

The issue was reported shortly after purchase

Their own support process dragged on for months

The product never worked as advertised at any point

So the logic was essentially:

“Yes, it never worked — but we spent long enough failing to fix it, so now it’s non-refundable.”

Why this matters:
EV code signing is critical infrastructure. When it fails, it blocks CI, releases, and production timelines. A broken EV kit is not a minor inconvenience. It costs real time and real money.

My takeaway:
If something goes wrong with Certum’s EV hardware, you’re stuck in a slow support loop — and once enough time passes, they’ll hide behind the 14-day policy even if the product was never usable.

Posting this so others don’t lose months and money the way I did.

I was purchasing an EV code signing certificate through the Certum online shop. Because I already had one of their smart cards for signing, I purchased "EV Code Signing - Code".

Their online shop description did not state this was a renewal, and did not let me choose for a new one or renewal. After the order, it showed up as "renewal", which means I couldn't use it.

After contacting their customer support, I first was just told to refund it. After the refund, I got a new link from customer support to purchase what they claimed was a new one. Even after purchasing that, I got a renewal again. This time, they changed the renewal to a new one within a day though, so I got what I wanted after some trouble.

I purchased a cloud-based certificate from CERTUM. The general process works well; the certificate was verified and issued within 3 business days. However, since the company is based in Poland, I unfortunately kept receiving emails and encountering web pages in Polish instead of English, which was a bit confusing. The prices are very affordable, though. Currently, I am still waiting for the invoice, which is marked as "not ready yet". The verification tracking process on the website is somewhat difficult to navigate. Honestly, I probably wouldn't have managed it without the help of Gemini. My initial rating was 3/5, but due to the low price, I'm giving it 4/5 stars.

I was looking for a qualified certificate issued by a trusted provider based in the European Union and decided on SimplySign – a cloud-based signature service. I was worried it would be a complicated process, but it wasn't that bad.

In addition to the qualified certificate for personal use, I also purchased a Code Signing certificate for my company – also in the cloud. The activation instructions were clear and easy to understand, and both certificates worked without any issues.

So far, everything is working as expected. The solution meets all our needs. I appreciate the transparent process and fast delivery – I highly recommend this service to others looking for digital certificates based in the EU.

I bought:
- simple code signing certificates in the cloud
- extended validation code signing certificates in the cloud.
Both times the verification process was quite fast and smooth (a few days and a couple of weeks for EV). Customer service also replies quickly to emails (though on the phone you might find someone that is not very proficient in English). I was overall happy with the service.
Only downside is that the desktop app and mobile app experience is not great. There seem to be an option to sign with right clicking on a file on windows but it never worked for me it crashes the app. Also only one mobile phone at the time can have the app generate tokens for the signing certificates, making it a bit harder if you work on a team.