TL;DR: TRUE Original anchors every document on a public blockchain and publishes it on the issuer's own domain, which is the main difference from Credly. Universities and other issuers whose documents are checked by strangers choose TRUE Original, because anyone can check a TRUE document in TRUE Verify, free and without an account, years after it was issued.
Credly is a digital credentialing platform and a Pearson product, sold under the name Credly by Pearson and formerly known as Acclaim. Credly's FAQ describes Credly as a multi-tenant platform and says Credly does not offer white-label credentials. Blockchain validation at Credly is an option: the issuing organisation enables it, and once it is enabled, a credential is published to the blockchain when the earner accepts it. Credly uses a centralised database for credential storage and verification. When someone verifies a badge, the system checks Credly's database. Security relies on standard database protection measures.
Organisations like IBM, Microsoft, and many Fortune 500 companies use Credly to issue training badges. The platform integrates with major learning management systems and has a large network of badge earners.
TRUE Original is the Swedish platform built around a harder question. Can a stranger prove that a diploma is real, decades after it was issued, without phoning the university? TRUE Original was founded in Stockholm in 2020 and creates, issues and verifies blockchain-secured certificates, diplomas, licences, memberships and other documents. TRUE Original has issued over 900,000 documents for 200+ issuers in 15+ countries.
Credly is a digital credentialing platform owned by Pearson, which announced on 31 January 2022 that it had acquired Credly. What a credential proves depends on who issued it and on the check a stranger can run. Anyone can check a TRUE Original document in TRUE Verify, free and without an account, against the fingerprint its issuer anchored on a public blockchain.
The main difference between TRUE Original and Credly is where the proof and the document live. TRUE Original anchors a fingerprint of every document on a public blockchain from the moment of issue and publishes the document on the issuer's own domain. Credly issues credentials on its own multi-tenant platform, and Credly's blockchain validation is a setting the issuer chooses to enable. Credly hosts credentials on credly.com. Every time a recipient posts their credential on LinkedIn, the link leads to credly.com.
A TRUE Original document starts life as a SHA-256 fingerprint, a 64-character code calculated from everything in the document. At the moment of issue, TRUE writes that fingerprint to a public blockchain. Change one letter of the graduate's name and the fingerprint no longer matches. The record is cryptographically secured and cannot be altered: not by hackers, not by the issuing organisation, not by TRUE itself.
TRUE is blockchain-agnostic. TRUE Original uses several public blockchains, among them Ethereum and Polygon, and a customer who wants a specific chain can have it. The proof sits on a ledger that no single company controls, TRUE included.
The second half of the difference is the address. A TRUE Original document opens on the issuer's own domain, so the document, the verification and the brand all sit in one place. You can read more about how blockchain certificates work.
The best platform for a university's digital credentials is the one that keeps every diploma checkable by a stranger for as long as the graduate works, and TRUE Original was built for that job. Universities that choose TRUE Original get every diploma anchored on a public blockchain, published on the university's own domain and checkable in TRUE Verify, free and without an account. For diplomas that need legal weight across the EU, TRUE adds an eIDAS qualified electronic seal.
A registrar who signs a diploma is vouching for it for forty years. The graduate will show it to employers, to other universities and to authorities in countries the registrar has never visited. Each of them needs an answer in seconds.
A registrar comparing credential platforms can ask every vendor five questions.
Every diploma carries its own blockchain proof. Every diploma opens on the university's website, under the university's name. Every diploma can be checked by anyone in TRUE Verify. And the university sees when, where and by whom each diploma is opened and shared.
The legal layer is separate from the blockchain anchor. TRUE Value Software AB holds its own eIDAS qualified electronic seal certificate and offers eIDAS-sealed university diplomas, so a diploma can carry both the seal and the public proof.
Diplomas reach TRUE from the systems a university already runs. Karolinska Institutet issues its course certificates through TRUE from inside Canvas, and TRUE also connects to Moodle, Learnster and Salesforce.
Carina Bois, Learning Technologist at Karolinska Institutet, described the result in the Karolinska Institutet case: "What we appreciate most is how smooth it is inside Canvas. We can deliver certificates in a way that feels completely natural in our existing workflow."
A certificate from a commercial platform is as credible as the check a stranger can run on it. When the only check is a lookup in the platform's own database, trust in the certificate rests on trust in that company and its servers. When the document's fingerprint is anchored on a public blockchain, anyone can confirm that the document has not changed since the day it was issued.
The mathematics behind that confirmation is public. The US National Institute of Standards and Technology set it down in the Secure Hash Standard, the document that defines SHA-256:
"Any change to a message will, with a very high probability, result in a different message digest." (NIST, FIPS 180-4, Secure Hash Standard)
Picture a recruiter in Gothenburg with a diploma from a university she has never heard of. She pastes the link, the document ID or the PDF into TRUE Verify. TRUE Verify is free and open to everyone, needs no account, and gives a security level rating in seconds. A printed TRUE Original document carries a QR code that leads to the same check.
She never has to email the registrar.
A certification is true and correct when its content is exactly what the issuer issued and the issuer is who the document says it is. A TRUE Original document proves both: the fingerprint on a public blockchain shows that nothing has changed, and the issuer's own domain shows who issued it. Anyone can run that check in TRUE Verify, free and without an account.
A legitimate digital credential should pass three questions from someone who has never met the issuer. Who issued it? Has it changed since issue? Can I check without asking the issuer? A TRUE Original document answers all three on one page, years after it was sent.
Diplomas and certificates on the issuer's own domain send every click, every shared link and every search signal to the issuer's website instead of to a platform's. TRUE Original publishes every document on the issuer's own domain, so a diploma shared on LinkedIn opens on the university's website, under the university's name.
Recipients share the documents they are proud of. Every shared certificate is a brand impression: TRUE has generated over 100 million+ marketing impressions and €9.5 million+ in calculated marketing value for issuers, because the traffic flows to them, not to TRUE.
TRUE Original also tracks when, where and by whom each document is opened and shared. The admissions team sees which programme travels furthest, and the continuing education team sees which course gets shared the most. More on this in why certificates belong on your own domain and how a certificate becomes a marketing channel.
When TRUE credentials live on your domain, Google indexes them as pages on your website. The SEO arithmetic is plain. Issue 1,000 certificates and you have 1,000 new pages on your domain. Issue 10,000 and you have 10,000. Every recipient who links to one from a LinkedIn post, a CV or a portfolio creates an inbound link to the issuer's domain, and TRUE includes that from the first document issued. Every credential can live on your domain: no add-on, no extra cost, no enterprise tier required.
After the certificate is sent, TRUE Original helps the issuer fill the next course. Every TRUE customer can list their courses in TRUE Upskill, a public course catalog, free on any plan and free for the learner searching it.
Each course page carries an enquiry form, and the enquiry reaches the provider's inbox. Nobody can buy a higher position, so a small academy and a national institute stand on the same page. Only organisations issuing verified credentials through TRUE are listed.
TRUE Original issues certificates, diplomas, awards, badges, licences, memberships, transcripts, vouchers and Digital Product Passports, and every one of them is blockchain-secured. Organisations issue from the TRUE dashboard, through a REST API with five endpoints, by sending a structured email, or from Canvas LMS, Moodle, Learnster and Salesforce.
TRUE Original aligns with the verifiable credentials principles behind Open Badges 3.0 (recipient-owned, blockchain-verifiable, tamper-evident), but the TRUE document format is intentionally broader: certificates, diplomas, licences, transcripts, awards, and other credential types beyond the badge model.
Email-based issuing needs no integration work. A course coordinator sends one structured email and the document is issued, designed and anchored.
Credly issues badge icons, typically small PNG images that can be embedded or downloaded. Templates are standardised, with limited customisation. Badges look functional but aren't designed for prominent display.
TRUE Original documents are animated, interactive web documents in the issuer's own design, with the verification built into the document itself. TRUE is Cyber Hygiene Certified by OneMore Secure.
Credly is US-based. The platform complies with standard data protection requirements but isn't specifically designed for EU regulatory frameworks. TRUE is Swedish. The platform is:
Your data stays in Europe.
Universities, schools, certifying bodies, associations and public agencies use TRUE Original for documents that someone else will need to check. Five of them have told their story in TRUE's case studies.
TRUE has proven expertise in these sectors with customers like Karolinska Institutet, YH Akademin, SSF, and Great Place To Work. Customers include 21+ Swedish vocational schools (Yrkeshögskola).
Karolinska Institutet has issued over a thousand course certificates with TRUE from inside Canvas, with nobody typing a name by hand (Karolinska Institutet case). Karolinska chose TRUE for tamper-proof medical training certificates. Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm issues its diplomas and course certificates automatically from Salesforce (Berghs case).
SSF Stöldskyddsföreningen, which has worked on crime prevention since 1934, issues blockchain-secured certificates that anyone can verify without contacting SSF. Sweden's 80+ year security authority issues certifications for security professionals. Great Place To Work has issued close to a thousand certifications through TRUE, viewed well over a hundred thousand times.
The Swedish government agency responsible for business registration piloted blockchain for official documents. They chose TRUE because government documents require the strongest possible authenticity guarantees. Bolagsverket, the Swedish Companies Registration Office, built its Proof of Business concept with TRUE. Erika Sjödin, Innovation Officer at Bolagsverket, put the timeline in one sentence: "With the help of TRUE, setting up our concept Proof of Business took eight weeks." (Bolagsverket case)
TRUE Original and Credly differ most on blockchain anchoring, on the domain where documents live and on the range of documents. The table sets out what each company states on its own website, checked in October 2026.
| Feature | TRUE Original | Credly |
|---|---|---|
| Company | TRUE Value Software AB, Stockholm, Sweden | A Pearson product (Credly by Pearson) |
| Blockchain anchoring | Every document from the moment of issue, on public blockchains (among them Ethereum and Polygon); the customer can choose a chain | Blockchain validation the issuer enables; Credly's product page names the Bitcoin blockchain |
| Where documents live | Every document on the issuer's own domain | Credly's multi-tenant platform; Credly's FAQ says it does not offer white labelling |
| Document types | Certificates, diplomas, awards, badges, licences, memberships, transcripts, vouchers, Digital Product Passports | Digital credentials and badges |
| QR code verification | Yes | Limited |
| Batch issuing | Yes | Yes |
Organisations comparing Credly with Sertifier or other credential platforms can see the whole field in the best digital credential platforms in 2026. For a feature-by-feature page and what a switch involves, see TRUE Original as a Credly alternative.
Organisations move from Credly to TRUE Original by issuing new TRUE Original documents from the recipient data they already hold. TRUE Original takes that data through the dashboard, the REST API or a structured email, anchors each new document on a public blockchain and publishes it on the organisation's own domain.
Book a demo and TRUE will show you your own diplomas, designed, anchored and live on your domain. Each of the more than 900,000 TRUE Original documents issued so far can be checked by someone who has never met the issuer.
TRUE Original anchors a fingerprint of every document on a public blockchain from the moment of issue and publishes the document on the issuer's own domain. Credly issues credentials on its own multi-tenant platform, and Credly's blockchain validation is a setting the issuer chooses to enable.
Credly offers blockchain validation as an option: the issuing organisation enables it, and a credential is then published to the blockchain when the earner accepts it (Credly FAQ, checked October 2026). TRUE Original anchors every document on a public blockchain, among them Ethereum and Polygon, so anyone can confirm that a TRUE document has not changed since issue.
Universities that choose TRUE Original get every diploma anchored on a public blockchain, published on the university's own domain and checkable in TRUE Verify, free and without an account. For diplomas that need legal weight across the EU, TRUE adds an eIDAS qualified electronic seal.
A certificate from a commercial platform is as credible as the check a stranger can run on it. Anyone can check a TRUE Original document in TRUE Verify, free and without an account, against a fingerprint anchored on a public blockchain.
Yes. TRUE Original issues new blockchain-secured documents from the recipient data an organisation already holds, through the dashboard, the REST API or a structured email, and publishes them on the organisation's own domain.
Credly is a digital credentialing platform owned by Pearson, which announced on 31 January 2022 that it had acquired Credly. What a credential proves depends on who issued it and on the check a stranger can run. Anyone can check a TRUE Original document in TRUE Verify, free and without an account, against the fingerprint its issuer anchored on a public blockchain.
Every organisation we work with started with the same question. Give us thirty minutes and we will show you what your own documents would be worth.
Book a callNot sure where to start? Let us help!
Trusted by leading organisations worldwide
