head to head · open source
authelia vs webauthn4j
authelia has 29,590 GitHub stars, 1,535 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webauthn4j has 599 stars, 101 forks, 16 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. authelia leads on adoption by 4,840% (29,590 vs 599 stars). authelia is written in Go under Apache-2.0; webauthn4j is written in Java under Apache-2.0. authelia has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, webauthn4j 17%. authelia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, passkeys), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| authelia | webauthn4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 599 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-08 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 101 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick authelia if
- You weight community size — 30K 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 webauthn4j if
- You want the webauthn4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and webauthn4j fits your workflow better
About authelia
<img alt="SLSA 3" src="
read the full authelia overview →
About webauthn4j
WebAuthn4J A portable Java library for WebAuthn(Passkeys) server side verification Conformance All mandatory test cases and optional Android Key attestation test cases of FIDO2 Test Tools provided by FIDO Alliance are passed. Supported Attestation statement format All attestation statement formats are supported. Packed attestation FIDO U2F attestation Android Key attestation Android SafetyNet attestation TPM attestation Apple Anonymous attestation None attestation Apple App Attest attestation Kotlin friendly Although WebAuthn4J is written in Java, public members are marked by NotNull or Nullable annotation to…
read the full webauthn4j overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Identity & Access Management (IAM) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Identity & Access Management (IAM) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is authelia or webauthn4j more popular?
authelia has 29,590 GitHub stars and webauthn4j has 599. authelia has the larger community by that measure.
Are authelia and webauthn4j free?
Both are open source. authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and webauthn4j under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between authelia and webauthn4j?
authelia is written in Go and webauthn4j in Java. 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 webauthn4j?
Choose authelia if you want the larger community (29,590 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose webauthn4j if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.