head to head · open source
hydra vs privacyidea
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars, 1,609 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. privacyidea has 1,774 stars, 361 forks, 193 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hydra leads on adoption by 889% (17,553 vs 1,774 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; privacyidea is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, privacyidea 20%. privacyidea 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.
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Side by side
| hydra | privacyidea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Python |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 361 |
| 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 privacyidea if
- You want the privacyidea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and privacyidea 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 privacyidea
privacyIDEA is an open source, self hosted multi factor authentication platform, written in Python and licensed under AGPL 3.0, for organisations that need to add a second factor to many different applications at once while keeping sensitive user data inside their own infrastructure.
read the full privacyidea overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or privacyidea more popular?
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars and privacyidea has 1,774. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and privacyidea free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and privacyidea under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and privacyidea?
hydra is written in Go and privacyidea in Python. 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 privacyidea?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose privacyidea if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.