head to head · open source
Authentik vs oauth2-proxy
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. oauth2-proxy has 15,313 stars, 2,258 forks, 285 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Authentik leads on adoption by 71% (26,209 vs 15,313 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; oauth2-proxy is written in Go under MIT. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, oauth2-proxy 15%. Authentik was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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
| Authentik | oauth2-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 15K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 oauth2-proxy if
- You want the oauth2-proxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and oauth2-proxy 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 oauth2-proxy
OAuth2 Proxy is a flexible, open source tool that can act as either a standalone reverse proxy or a middleware component integrated into existing reverse proxy or load balancer setups. It provides a simple and secure way to protect your web applications with OAuth2 / OIDC authentication. As a reverse proxy, it intercepts requests to your application and redirects users to an OAuth2 provider for authentication. As a middleware, it can be seamlessly integrated into your existing infrastructure to handle authentication for multiple applications. OAuth2 Proxy supports a lot of OAuth2 as well as OIDC providers…
read the full oauth2-proxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or oauth2-proxy more popular?
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars and oauth2-proxy has 15,313. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and oauth2-proxy free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and oauth2-proxy is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and oauth2-proxy?
Authentik is written in Python and oauth2-proxy 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 oauth2-proxy?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose oauth2-proxy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.