head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs gokey
SuperTokens has 15,316 GitHub stars, 842 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. gokey has 2,436 stars, 109 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 529% (15,316 vs 2,436 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; gokey is written in Go under BSD-3-Clause. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, gokey 4%. SuperTokens was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| SuperTokens | gokey | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 2.4K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-07-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 842 | ⑂ 109 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SuperTokens if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick gokey if
- You want the gokey feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and gokey fits your workflow better
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 →
About gokey
gokey is a vaultless password and key generator written in Go that derives passwords and cryptographic private keys on demand from a master password or a seed file instead of storing them in a vault, aimed at developers and system administrators who want deterministic credentials available anywhere without managing, backing up, or syncing a password store.
read the full gokey overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Identity & Access Management (IAM) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Identity & Access Management (IAM) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or gokey more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,316 GitHub stars and gokey has 2,436. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and gokey free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and gokey is licensed under BSD-3-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and gokey?
SuperTokens is written in Java and gokey 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, SuperTokens or gokey?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,316 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose gokey if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.