head to head · open source
casbin vs Hexclave
casbin has 20,476 GitHub stars, 1,768 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hexclave has 6,887 stars, 528 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. casbin leads on adoption by 197% (20,476 vs 6,887 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Hexclave is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Hexclave 8%. Hexclave 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
| casbin | Hexclave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 6.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 528 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick casbin if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Hexclave if
- You want the Hexclave feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Hexclave fits your workflow better
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 →
About Hexclave
Hexclave The user infrastructure platform. Hexclave handles everything around your users: authentication, teams, payments, emails, analytics, and much more. Get started with our AI prompt below. Website · Docs · Dashboard · Discord Get started Setting up Hexclave is one prompt. Paste this into your coding agent of choice: For AI agents If you're an AI coding agent, use your web fetch tool or curl the skill documentation for up to date integration instructions: What's included Hexclave ships as a catalog of apps you switch on as your product needs them. Each one is built on the same user model, and new apps land…
read the full Hexclave overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or Hexclave more popular?
casbin has 20,476 GitHub stars and Hexclave has 6,887. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and Hexclave free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Hexclave has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between casbin and Hexclave?
casbin is written in Go and Hexclave in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, casbin or Hexclave?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,476 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Hexclave if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.