---
id: certbot-dns-route53
version: "5.7.0"
license: Apache-2.0
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# certbot-dns-route53 — Route53 DNS Authenticator plugin for Certbot

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 201.1K/mo

## What it is and what it does

This package is a plugin for Certbot that extends its certificate provisioning workflow to use AWS Route53 for DNS-based domain validation. Instead of requiring web server access or manual DNS record creation, it automates the ACME DNS challenge by programmatically creating and removing Route53 records on your behalf. The plugin depends on boto3 for AWS API interaction, acme for ACME protocol handling, and certbot as its host framework.

It is designed for teams managing domains on Route53 who want to automate Let's Encrypt certificate issuance without exposing web servers or managing manual DNS updates. The plugin handles the full validation flow: it creates temporary DNS records to prove domain ownership, waits for propagation, and cleans up after the challenge completes. This is particularly useful for infrastructure-as-code workflows and CI/CD pipelines where certificates need to be provisioned programmatically.

Use it for:

- Automate HTTPS certificate provisioning for Route53-hosted domains in AWS infrastructure.
- Enable certificate renewal in CI/CD pipelines without manual DNS intervention or web server access.
- Issue wildcard or multi-domain certificates for Route53 domains via fully automated DNS validation.
- Integrate Let's Encrypt certificate management into infrastructure-as-code deployments on AWS.
- Provision certificates for internal or non-public domains where HTTP validation is not feasible.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

A Certbot plugin that automates DNS validation for Let's Encrypt certificate issuance using AWS Route53, enabling hands-off HTTPS certificate provisioning for domains hosted on Route53.

Yes. This is a mature, actively maintained plugin (active status, recent release) with no known vulnerabilities, low install friction, and a permissive license. Install it if you host domains on Route53 and want to automate Let's Encrypt certificate provisioning without manual DNS or web server configuration. Requires AWS credentials and Certbot already installed.

## Install

pip install certbot-dns-route53
uv add certbot-dns-route53
poetry add certbot-dns-route53

## Installing certbot-dns-route53

Before you install: Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel. Maintenance is active with a recent release (30 days ago) and the parent Certbot project shows strong community backing (33202 stars). Supports modern Python versions (3.10–3.14).

License in practice: Apache-2.0 permissive license allows commercial and private use with minimal restrictions, making it suitable for production deployments.

Quickstart:

pip install certbot-dns-route53

certbot certonly --dns-route53 -d example.com

Requires AWS credentials (via environment variables or IAM role) with Route53 permissions, and Certbot must run on a system with network access to Route53 API.

Verify before relying:

- Whether the plugin supports wildcard certificate issuance via Route53 DNS validation.
- Whether automatic certificate renewal is supported and how it integrates with system schedulers.
- Performance characteristics when managing many domains or frequent validation cycles.

## Package facts

- License: Apache-2.0 (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 201.1K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

certbot route53 dns validation, let's encrypt aws route53 automation, acme dns challenge route53, certbot aws dns plugin, automated https route53 domains, aws-integration, certificate-automation, dns-validation

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