head to head · open source
Keycloak vs samlify
Keycloak has 37,657 GitHub stars, 9,129 forks, 3,292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. samlify has 663 stars, 235 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. Keycloak leads on adoption by 5,580% (37,657 vs 663 stars). Keycloak is written in Java under Apache-2.0; samlify is written in TypeScript under MIT. Keycloak has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, samlify 35%. Keycloak was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (saml), 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 | samlify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 663 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-21 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 235 |
| 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 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 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 samlify
samlify · Highly configuarable Node.js SAML 2.0 library for Single Sign On Welcome PRs Welcome all PRs for maintaining this project, or provide a link to the repositories especially for use cases alongside with different frameworks. Installation Multiple schema validators are currently supported by our system, with couple validator modules available and the option to create custom ones. It is essential to utilize the setSchemaValidator function at the outset to avoid errors. Now you can create your own schema validator and even suppress it but you have to take the risk for accepting malicious response…
read the full samlify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or samlify more popular?
Keycloak has 37,657 GitHub stars and samlify has 663. Keycloak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Keycloak and samlify free?
Both are open source. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and samlify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Keycloak and samlify?
Keycloak is written in Java 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, Keycloak or samlify?
Choose Keycloak if you want the larger community (37,657 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose samlify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.