head to head · open source
hydra vs samlify
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars, 1,609 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. samlify has 661 stars, 233 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. hydra leads on adoption by 2,556% (17,553 vs 661 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; samlify is written in TypeScript under MIT. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, samlify 35%. samlify 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
| hydra | samlify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 661 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-08-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 samlify if
- You want the samlify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and samlify 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 samlify
Node.js SAML 2.0 library for Single Sign On, written in TypeScript under the MIT licence, for developers adding SAML SSO to Node.js applications as either a Service Provider or an Identity Provider.
read the full samlify 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 hydra or samlify more popular?
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars and samlify has 661. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and samlify free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and samlify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and samlify?
hydra is written in Go and samlify 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 samlify?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose samlify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.