head to head · open source
hydra vs tinyauth
hydra has 17,555 GitHub stars, 1,610 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. tinyauth has 8,277 stars, 273 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped today. hydra leads on adoption by 112% (17,555 vs 8,277 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; tinyauth is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, tinyauth 3%. tinyauth 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 | tinyauth | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 8.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 273 |
| 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 tinyauth if
- You want the tinyauth feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and tinyauth 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 tinyauth
Tinyauth is a small Go authentication and authorization server that runs either as authentication middleware in front of self hosted applications or as a standalone authentication server, and it is aimed at self hosters and homelab operators who want OpenID Certified™ single sign on without deploying a large identity platform.
read the full tinyauth overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or tinyauth more popular?
hydra has 17,555 GitHub stars and tinyauth has 8,277. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and tinyauth free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and tinyauth under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and tinyauth?
hydra is written in Go and tinyauth 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 tinyauth?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,555 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose tinyauth if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.