1. Digital certificate refers to an electronic document issued by CA, which is a series of numbers that can display the identity information of network users and provide a way to verify the identity of network users on the computer network, so digital certificate is also called digital identification.

2. Electronic seal: data in electronic form, which is associated with data messages (electronic documents, electronic information) to identify the identity of the signer and show that the signer approves the contents of the data message.

Second, the use characteristics are different.

1. digital certificate: When users apply for certificates, there will be two different certificates, one for the work computer and the other for verifying the interaction of user information. If the computers used are different, the user needs to re-obtain the certificate used to verify the user's use of the computer, but it cannot be backed up, so that even if someone steals the certificate, the user's account information cannot be obtained, which ensures the account information.

2. Electronic seal: Electronic seal overcomes many defects of traditional seal and is more secure. Electronic seal conforms to traditional habits and makes electronic signature visible, which promotes the popularization and application of electronic signature in the transition stage from traditional office writing mode to information office writing mode.

Electronic seal is realized by means of CA authentication technology and information encryption technology, and it can be directly stamped on electronic documents, which belongs to a kind of electronic signature (electronic signature can be understood as seal and signature).

Compared with the traditional offline entity seal, the difficulty of electronic seal technology is not to realize the electronization of enterprise seal appearance, but to ensure the legal effect of electronic documents stamped with electronic seals, that is, electronic documents signed with reliable electronic seals have the characteristics of identifiable signature identity and unchangeable signature content.