head to head · open source
Authentik vs dex
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dex has 11,227 stars, 2,015 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authentik leads on adoption by 133% (26,209 vs 11,227 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; dex is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, dex 18%. Authentik was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (kubernetes, 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
| Authentik | dex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 11K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 dex if
- You want the dex 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 dex 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 dex
dex A federated OpenID Connect provider Dex is an identity service that uses [OpenID Connect][openid connect] to drive authentication for other apps. Dex acts as a portal to other identity providers through "connectors." This lets dex defer authentication to LDAP servers, SAML providers, or established identity providers like GitHub, Google, and Active Directory. Clients write their authentication logic once to talk to dex, then dex handles the protocols for a given backend. ID Tokens ID Tokens are an OAuth2 extension introduced by OpenID Connect and dex's primary feature. ID Tokens are [JSON Web Tokens][jwt io]…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or dex more popular?
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars and dex has 11,227. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and dex free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and dex is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and dex?
Authentik is written in Python and dex 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 dex?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose dex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.