head to head · open source
hydra vs dex
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars, 1,609 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. dex has 11,105 stars, 1,982 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hydra leads on adoption by 58% (17,553 vs 11,105 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; dex is written in Go under Apache-2.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, dex 18%. dex was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (hacktoberfest), 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
| hydra | dex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 11K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hydra if
- You weight community size — 18K 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 dex if
- You want the dex 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 dex fits your workflow better
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 →
About dex
Dex is an OpenID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0 identity provider written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, built for teams that want one authentication endpoint in front of many upstream identity sources instead of one integration per application.
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or dex more popular?
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars and dex has 11,105. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and dex free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and dex under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and dex?
hydra is written in Go and dex 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, hydra or dex?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose dex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.