head to head · open source
casbin vs hydra
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars, 1,756 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. hydra has 17,553 stars, 1,609 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. casbin leads on adoption by 16% (20,399 vs 17,553 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, hydra 9%. casbin was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | hydra | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-07-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| 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 hydra if
- You want the hydra 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 hydra fits your workflow better
About casbin
Apache Casbin is an Apache licensed authorization library for Go that helps developers enforce access control models such as ACL, RBAC, and ABAC inside their own applications rather than in a separate service.
read the full casbin overview →
About hydra
Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.1 provider written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, built for teams that need standards compliant token issuance, client management, and consent flows while user accounts stay in their own existing identity system.
read the full hydra overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or hydra more popular?
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars and hydra has 17,553. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and hydra free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and hydra under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between casbin and hydra?
casbin is written in Go and hydra 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, casbin or hydra?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,399 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose hydra if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.