head to head · open source
Authentik vs casbin
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. casbin has 20,476 stars, 1,767 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authentik leads on adoption by 28% (26,209 vs 20,476 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, casbin 9%. 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, authorization), 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 | casbin | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 20K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 casbin if
- You want the casbin 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 casbin 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 casbin
Apache Casbin ==== News : still worry about how to write the correct Apache Casbin policy? Apache Casbin online editor is coming to help! Try it at: Apache Casbin is a powerful and efficient open source access control library for Golang projects. It provides support for enforcing authorization based on various access control models. All the languages supported by Apache Casbin: Table of contents Supported models How it works? Features Installation Documentation Online editor Tutorials Get started Policy management Policy persistence Policy consistence between multiple nodes Role manager Benchmarks Examples…
read the full casbin overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or casbin more popular?
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars and casbin has 20,476. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and casbin free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and casbin?
Authentik is written in Python and casbin 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 casbin?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose casbin if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.