head to head · open source
hydra vs oauth2-proxy
hydra has 17,646 GitHub stars, 1,619 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. oauth2-proxy has 15,319 stars, 2,259 forks, 285 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hydra leads on adoption by 15% (17,646 vs 15,319 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; oauth2-proxy is written in Go under MIT. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, oauth2-proxy 15%. oauth2-proxy was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (hacktoberfest, oauth2), 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
| hydra | oauth2-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hydra if
- You weight community size — 18K 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-proxy if
- You want the oauth2-proxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and oauth2-proxy fits your workflow better
About hydra
Chat · Discussions · Newsletter · Docs · Try Ory Network · Jobs Ory Hydra is a hardened, OpenID Certified OAuth 2.0 Server and OpenID Connect Provider optimized for low latency, high throughput, and low resource consumption. It connects to your existing identity provider through a login and consent app, giving you absolute control over the user interface and experience. What is Ory Hydra? Why Ory Hydra OAuth2 and OpenID Connect: Open Standards OpenID Connect Certified Deployment options Use Ory Hydra on the Ory Network Self host Ory Hydra Quickstart Who is using Ory Hydra Ecosystem Ory Kratos: Identity and User…
read the full hydra overview →
About oauth2-proxy
OAuth2 Proxy is a flexible, open source tool that can act as either a standalone reverse proxy or a middleware component integrated into existing reverse proxy or load balancer setups. It provides a simple and secure way to protect your web applications with OAuth2 / OIDC authentication. As a reverse proxy, it intercepts requests to your application and redirects users to an OAuth2 provider for authentication. As a middleware, it can be seamlessly integrated into your existing infrastructure to handle authentication for multiple applications. OAuth2 Proxy supports a lot of OAuth2 as well as OIDC providers…
read the full oauth2-proxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or oauth2-proxy more popular?
hydra has 17,646 GitHub stars and oauth2-proxy has 15,319. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and oauth2-proxy free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and oauth2-proxy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and oauth2-proxy?
hydra is written in Go and oauth2-proxy 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, hydra or oauth2-proxy?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,646 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose oauth2-proxy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.