head to head · open source
casbin vs Sa-Token
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars, 1,756 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Sa-Token has 19,051 stars, 2,914 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. casbin leads on adoption by 7% (20,399 vs 19,051 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Sa-Token is written in Java under Apache-2.0. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Sa-Token 15%. Sa-Token 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 | Sa-Token | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 19K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| 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 Sa-Token if
- You want the Sa-Token feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and Sa-Token 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 Sa-Token
Sa Token is a free, open source, one stop Java authentication and authorization framework, licensed under Apache 2.0, that gives Java and Spring Boot developers login authentication, permission checks, distributed sessions, single sign on, OAuth2.0, gateway authentication, JWT integration, API key authorization and API parameter signing from a single dependency.
read the full Sa-Token overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or Sa-Token more popular?
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars and Sa-Token has 19,051. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and Sa-Token free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Sa-Token under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between casbin and Sa-Token?
casbin is written in Go and Sa-Token in Java. 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 Sa-Token?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,399 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Sa-Token if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.