head to head · open source
Keycloak vs Tirreno
Keycloak has 36,832 GitHub stars, 8,941 forks, 3,292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Tirreno has 1,513 stars, 179 forks, 9 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Keycloak leads on adoption by 2,334% (36,832 vs 1,513 stars). Keycloak is written in Java under Apache-2.0; Tirreno is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Keycloak has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, Tirreno 12%. 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 | Tirreno | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 37K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.9K | ⑂ 179 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Keycloak if
- You weight community size — 37K 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 Tirreno if
- You want the Tirreno feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Tirreno fits your workflow better
About Keycloak
Keycloak is an open source identity and access management server, written in Java and licensed under Apache 2.0, that adds authentication and access control to applications and services, and it is intended for teams and organisations that want to own their user store rather than rent one.
read the full Keycloak overview →
About Tirreno
Tirreno is an open source security framework written in PHP and backed by PostgreSQL under AGPL 3.0. It lives in the application security and fraud prevention ecosystem, where it runs as a self hosted web application. The project describes itself as a few dependency, hand written application that can be installed quickly and used to ingest product events through API calls.
read the full Tirreno overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or Tirreno more popular?
Keycloak has 36,832 GitHub stars and Tirreno has 1,513. Keycloak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Keycloak and Tirreno free?
Both are open source. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Tirreno under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Keycloak and Tirreno?
Keycloak is written in Java and Tirreno in PHP. 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 Tirreno?
Choose Keycloak if you want the larger community (36,832 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Tirreno if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.