head to head · open source
Keycloak vs pocket-id
Keycloak has 37,657 GitHub stars, 9,129 forks, 3,292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pocket-id has 9,906 stars, 348 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Keycloak leads on adoption by 280% (37,657 vs 9,906 stars). Keycloak is written in Java under Apache-2.0; pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. Keycloak has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, pocket-id 4%. Keycloak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (oidc), 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
| Keycloak | pocket-id | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 348 |
| 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 pocket-id if
- You want the pocket-id feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pocket-id 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 pocket-id
Pocket ID Pocket ID is an easy to use OpenID Connect Certified™ and OAuth 2.0 provider that lets users sign in to your applications with passkeys. → Try out the Demo The goal of Pocket ID is to be a simple and easy to use. There are other self hosted OIDC and OAuth 2.0 providers like Keycloak or ORY Hydra but they are often too complex for simple use cases. Additionally, what makes Pocket ID special is that it only supports passkey authentication, which means you don’t need a password. Some people might not like this idea at first, but I believe passkeys are the future, and once you try them, you’ll love them…
read the full pocket-id overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or pocket-id more popular?
Keycloak has 37,657 GitHub stars and pocket-id has 9,906. Keycloak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Keycloak and pocket-id free?
Both are open source. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pocket-id under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Keycloak and pocket-id?
Keycloak is written in Java and pocket-id 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 pocket-id?
Choose Keycloak if you want the larger community (37,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pocket-id if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.