head to head · open source
Keycloak vs caddy-security
Keycloak has 37,823 GitHub stars, 9,178 forks, 3,292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. caddy-security has 2,281 stars, 105 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 15 days ago. Keycloak leads on adoption by 1,558% (37,823 vs 2,281 stars). Keycloak is written in Java under Apache-2.0; caddy-security is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Keycloak has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, caddy-security 5%. Keycloak 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
| Keycloak | caddy-security | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-11 | 2026-10-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.2K | ⑂ 105 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Keycloak if
- You weight community size — 38K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick caddy-security if
- You want the caddy-security feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and caddy-security fits your workflow better
About Keycloak
Open Source Identity and Access Management Add authentication to applications and secure services with minimum effort. No need to deal with storing users or authenticating users. Keycloak provides user federation, strong authentication, user management, fine grained authorization, and more. Help and Documentation Documentation User Mailing List Mailing list for help and general questions about Keycloak Join keycloak for general questions, or keycloak dev on Slack for design and development discussions, by creating an account at Reporting Security Vulnerabilities If you have found a security vulnerability, please…
read the full Keycloak overview →
About caddy-security
caddy security Security App with Authentication and Authorization Plugins for Caddy v2. It includes: Authentication Plugin for implementing Form Based, Basic, Local, LDAP, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SAML Authentication Authorization Plugin for HTTP request authorization based on JWT/PASETO tokens Credentials Plugin for managing credentials for various integrations To retain sessions and generated signing keys across restarts, enable persistent runtime state. It supports portals and direct OAuth policies without a portal. Persistent deployments require a complete stop/start; overlapping reload is rejected. Please…
read the full caddy-security overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or caddy-security more popular?
Keycloak has 37,823 GitHub stars and caddy-security has 2,281. Keycloak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Keycloak and caddy-security free?
Both are open source. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and caddy-security under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Keycloak and caddy-security?
Keycloak is written in Java and caddy-security 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, Keycloak or caddy-security?
Choose Keycloak if you want the larger community (37,823 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose caddy-security if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.