head to head · open source
authelia vs privacyidea
authelia has 29,482 GitHub stars, 1,531 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. privacyidea has 1,790 stars, 368 forks, 193 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. authelia leads on adoption by 1,547% (29,482 vs 1,790 stars). authelia is written in Go under Apache-2.0; privacyidea is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. authelia has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, privacyidea 21%. privacyidea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (2fa, authentication, mfa), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| authelia | privacyidea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 368 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick authelia if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick privacyidea if
- You want the privacyidea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and privacyidea fits your workflow better
About authelia
<img alt="SLSA 3" src="
read the full authelia overview →
About privacyidea
.. .. image:: .. :alt: CircleCI .. :target: Backend cov backend Frontend cov frontend .. cov backend image:: :alt: Backend coverage :target: .. cov frontend image:: :alt: Frontend coverage :target: .. .. image:: .. :alt: Downloads .. :target: .. image:: :alt: Latest Version :target: .. image:: :alt: PyPI Python Version :target: .. image:: :alt: License :target: .. image:: :alt: Documentation :target: .. .. image:: .. :alt: Code Climate .. :target: .. .. image:: :alt: Codacy Badge :target: privacyIDEA: Open Source Multi Factor Authentication ==================================================== privacyIDEA is an…
read the full privacyidea overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is authelia or privacyidea more popular?
authelia has 29,482 GitHub stars and privacyidea has 1,790. authelia has the larger community by that measure.
Are authelia and privacyidea free?
Both are open source. authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and privacyidea under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between authelia and privacyidea?
authelia is written in Go and privacyidea in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, authelia or privacyidea?
Choose authelia if you want the larger community (29,482 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose privacyidea if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.