head to head · open source
casbin vs SuperTokens
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars, 1,756 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. SuperTokens has 15,315 stars, 842 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. casbin leads on adoption by 33% (20,399 vs 15,315 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, SuperTokens 5%. SuperTokens was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (authentication), 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 | SuperTokens | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 842 |
| 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 SuperTokens if
- You want the SuperTokens feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and SuperTokens 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 SuperTokens
SuperTokens is an open source authentication and session management platform for applications that need login, sign up, sign out, and user data control. It sits in the identity and access management ecosystem and is described as an alternative to Auth0, Firebase Auth, and AWS Cognito. It separates work into a frontend SDK, a backend SDK, and a Java based SuperTokens Core service that handles authentication logic and database operations.
read the full SuperTokens overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or SuperTokens more popular?
casbin has 20,399 GitHub stars and SuperTokens has 15,315. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and SuperTokens free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between casbin and SuperTokens?
casbin is written in Go and SuperTokens 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 SuperTokens?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,399 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SuperTokens if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.