OpenPGP, PGP, and GPG: What is the Difference? (2024)

FAQs

OpenPGP, PGP, and GPG: What is the Difference? ›

PGP and GPG provide secure encryption and authentication, with PGP being proprietary and GPG open-source and free. Following Phil Zimmermann's PGP, GPG emerged as an OpenPGP-compliant free version. Your preference between PGP and GPG depends on your willingness to pay for licensing and support services.

Open PGP: The IETF-approved standard that describes any encryption technology that uses processes interoperable with PGP. PGP: A proprietary encryption solution owned by Symantec. GPG: Another popular solution that follows the Open PGP standard and provides an interface for users to easily encrypt their files.

PGP makes use of four types of keys: one-time session symmetric keys, public keys, private keys, and passphrase-based symmetric keys.

Once you've imported a PGP key into your GPG keyring, this doesn't mean you can interoperate with PGP in all ways using this key. Many versions of PGP have appeared over the years, before and after the emergence of the OpenPGP standard, and GPG does not interoperate with every one.

GPG stands for GNU Privacy Guard, which is an independent implementation of PGP. PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy, was originally developed as freeware copyrighted under the GNU public license to provide the ability to securely share and transfer information with strong encryption.

Although OpenPGP's main purpose is end-to-end encrypted email communication, it is also utilized for encrypted messaging and other use cases such as password managers.

Yes, PGP encryption is still used and is considered an industry standard for protecting sensitive information. Both commercial and free, open-source implementations of PGP are available. Commercial solutions offer technical support that may be lacking in freeware tools.

Virtru End-to-End Encryption –Better than Pretty Good

Virtru overcomes inherent weaknesses in PGP and S/MIME and represents the next generation of end-to-end encryption. “Virtru offers encryption as secure as PGP but makes it easy enough that our end users, customers and partners can use it regularly.”

PGP is just as strong as that of AES, but it adds an additional layer of security to prevent anyone who only has the public key from being able to decrypt data. Another benefit of asymmetric encryption is that it allows for authentication.

Is OpenPGP compatible with GPG? ›

Developed by the Free Software Foundation, GPG is compliant with RFC 4880. Meaning it adheres to the OpenPGP standard and hence possesses the core functionality of PGP.

The grain per gallon (gpg) is a unit of water hardness defined as 1 grain (64.8 milligrams) of calcium carbonate dissolved in 1 US gallon of water (3.785412 L). It translates into 1 part in about 58,000 parts of water or 17.1 parts per million (ppm). Also called Clark degree (in terms of an imperial gallon).

GnuPG, or gpg, is the free implementation of the well known Open PGP project. It allows you to encrypt or decrypt files based on keys. gpg uses what is commonly known as the public key cryptography, using a private and public key to allow safe encryption or decryption of files.

GPG stands for GNU Privacy Guard and is a specific Open PGP implementation. GPG provides tools and libraries that allow users to use a GUI or command line to integrate encryption with emails and operating systems, such as Linux.

GPG uses public key encryption. You can use someone's public key to encrypt a message or document, in a way that only the owner of the corresponding private key will be able to decrypt. This is a great way to send somebody highly confidential data.

It was one of the first freely available forms of public-key cryptography software. PGP works by combining cryptography, data compression, and hashing techniques.

Is GPG Still Needed? Absolutely. GPG is in use today by journalists, business leaders, universities, and others who wish to keep the transmission of messages and data secure.

The GNU Privacy Guard

GnuPG, also known as GPG, is a command line tool with features for easy integration with other applications. A wealth of frontend applications and libraries are available. GnuPG also provides support for S/MIME and Secure Shell (ssh).