head to head · open source
Authentik vs Permify
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars, 2,099 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Permify has 5,968 stars, 329 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authentik leads on adoption by 339% (26,209 vs 5,968 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; Permify is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, Permify 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 (authorization, kubernetes), 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 | Permify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 329 |
| 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 Permify if
- You want the Permify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Permify 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 Permify
Exciting news: Permify has been acquired by FusionAuth! 🎉 Permify Blog Post Official Press Release FusionAuth Blog Post Permify Open Source Fine Grained Authorization Implement fine grained, scalable and extensible access controls within minutes to days instead of months. Inspired by Google’s consistent, global authorization system, Zanzibar What is Permify? Permify is an open source authorization service for easily building and managing fine grained, scalable, and extensible access controls for your applications and services. Inspired by Google’s consistent, global authorization system, Google Zanzibar Our…
read the full Permify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or Permify more popular?
Authentik has 26,209 GitHub stars and Permify has 5,968. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and Permify free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and Permify is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and Permify?
Authentik is written in Python and Permify 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 Permify?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,209 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Permify if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.