head to head · open source
casbin vs oauth2-client
casbin has 20,400 GitHub stars, 1,757 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. oauth2-client has 3,819 stars, 770 forks, 64 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. casbin leads on adoption by 434% (20,400 vs 3,819 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; oauth2-client is written in PHP under MIT. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, oauth2-client 20%. oauth2-client was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, authorization), 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
| casbin | oauth2-client | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 3.8K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 770 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick casbin if
- You weight community size — 20K 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 oauth2-client if
- You want the oauth2-client feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and oauth2-client fits your workflow better
About casbin
Apache Casbin is an Apache licensed authorization library for Go that helps developers enforce access control models such as ACL, RBAC, and ABAC inside their own applications rather than in a separate service.
read the full casbin overview →
About oauth2-client
league/oauth2 client is an MIT licensed PHP library maintained by The PHP League that provides a reusable base for integrating applications with any OAuth 2.0 service provider, aimed at PHP developers who need to add "Connect with Facebook/Google" style login and token flows without implementing RFC 6749 from scratch.
read the full oauth2-client overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or oauth2-client more popular?
casbin has 20,400 GitHub stars and oauth2-client has 3,819. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and oauth2-client free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and oauth2-client under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between casbin and oauth2-client?
casbin is written in Go and oauth2-client 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, casbin or oauth2-client?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,400 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose oauth2-client if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.