head to head · open source
Better Auth vs Authentik
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars, 3,052 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Authentik has 26,209 stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 17% (30,553 vs 26,209 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Authentik 8%. Authentik was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (authentication, oauth2, oidc), 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
| Better Auth | Authentik | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 26K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Better Auth if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Authentik if
- You want the Authentik feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Authentik fits your workflow better
About Better Auth
Discord · Website · Issues Better Auth Better Auth is a framework agnostic authentication (and authorization) framework for TypeScript. It provides a comprehensive set of features out of the box and includes a plugin ecosystem that simplifies adding advanced functionalities with minimal code in a short amount of time. Whether you need 2FA, multi tenant support, or other complex features, it lets you focus on building your actual application instead of reinventing the wheel. Why Better Auth Authentication in the TypeScript ecosystem is a half solved problem. Other open source libraries often require a lot of…
read the full Better Auth overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or Authentik more popular?
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars and Authentik has 26,209. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and Authentik free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT, and Authentik has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Better Auth and Authentik?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and Authentik 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, Better Auth or Authentik?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Authentik if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.