head to head · open source
hydra vs jans
hydra has 17,599 GitHub stars, 1,607 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. jans has 652 stars, 176 forks, 489 open issues and last shipped today. hydra leads on adoption by 2,599% (17,599 vs 652 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; jans is written in Java under Apache-2.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, jans 27%. jans was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (identity, oauth2), 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 | jans | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 652 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-10-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 176 |
| 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 jans if
- You want the jans 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 jans 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 jans
Janssen is a Linux Foundation open source identity and access management project for teams that need to run OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect single sign on, low code authentication flows, and policy based authorization on infrastructure they control.
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or jans more popular?
hydra has 17,599 GitHub stars and jans has 652. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and jans free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and jans under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and jans?
hydra is written in Go and jans 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, hydra or jans?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,599 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose jans if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.