head to head · open source
hydra vs melody-auth
hydra has 17,646 GitHub stars, 1,619 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. melody-auth has 651 stars, 70 forks, 3 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. hydra leads on adoption by 2,611% (17,646 vs 651 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; melody-auth is written in TypeScript under MIT. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, melody-auth 11%. melody-auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | melody-auth | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 651 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-10-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 70 |
| 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 melody-auth if
- You want the melody-auth feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and melody-auth fits your workflow better
About hydra
Chat · Discussions · Newsletter · Docs · Try Ory Network · Jobs Ory Hydra is a hardened, OpenID Certified OAuth 2.0 Server and OpenID Connect Provider optimized for low latency, high throughput, and low resource consumption. It connects to your existing identity provider through a login and consent app, giving you absolute control over the user interface and experience. What is Ory Hydra? Why Ory Hydra OAuth2 and OpenID Connect: Open Standards OpenID Connect Certified Deployment options Use Ory Hydra on the Ory Network Self host Ory Hydra Quickstart Who is using Ory Hydra Ecosystem Ory Kratos: Identity and User…
read the full hydra overview →
About melody-auth
Melody Auth Melody Auth is a user friendly, robust solution for implementing and hosting your own OAuth and authentication system. Deploy to Cloudflare using Workers, D1, and KV in just minutes — minimizing infrastructure and DevOps overhead. Self Host with Node.js, Redis, and PostgreSQL — giving you full control over your data and infrastructure. Feature Overview Disclaimer All French translations provided in this project have been generated by AI. Please review them carefully for accuracy before use. What's included? OAuth & Authentication Server [[Setup]]( [[Config]]( Server to Server REST API for backend…
read the full melody-auth overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or melody-auth more popular?
hydra has 17,646 GitHub stars and melody-auth has 651. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and melody-auth free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and melody-auth under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and melody-auth?
hydra is written in Go and melody-auth in TypeScript. 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 melody-auth?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,646 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose melody-auth if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.