head to head · open source
Authentik vs Authgear
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authgear has 2,139 stars, 130 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authentik leads on adoption by 1,125% (26,209 vs 2,139 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Authgear is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Authgear 6%. Authentik was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, oauth2), 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
| Authentik | Authgear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 130 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Authentik if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Authgear if
- You want the Authgear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Authgear fits your workflow better
About Authentik
What is authentik? authentik is an open source Identity Provider (IdP) for modern SSO. It supports SAML, OAuth2/OIDC, LDAP, RADIUS, and more, designed for self hosting from small labs to large production clusters. Our enterprise offering is available for organizations to securely replace existing IdPs such as Okta, Auth0, Entra ID, and Ping Identity for robust, large scale identity management. Installation Docker Compose: recommended for small/test setups. See the documentation. Kubernetes (Helm Chart): recommended for larger setups. See the documentation and the Helm chart repository. AWS CloudFormation: deploy…
read the full Authentik overview →
About Authgear
📘 Docs ☁️ SaaS Cloud ✨ Demo 💬 Discord Authgear: Open source alternative to Auth0 / Clerk / Firebase Auth Authgear is an open source extensible turnkey solution for all of your consumer authentication needs. Authgear gets you started in 5 minutes with developer friendly SDKs and a comprehensive portal. Available for self hosting and on Authgear Cloud. With a wide range of out of the box features, it's perfect for SaaS product and multi apps ecosystem, such as: Passwordless login: Magic link/OTP with Email, SMS, WhatsApp Passkeys Pre built signup/login page Pre built user account settings page Biometric Login on…
read the full Authgear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or Authgear more popular?
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars and Authgear has 2,139. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and Authgear free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and Authgear is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and Authgear?
Authentik is written in Python and Authgear in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Authentik or Authgear?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Authgear if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.