head to head · open source
Keycloak vs oauth2-proxy
Keycloak has 37,689 GitHub stars, 9,139 forks, 3,292 open issues and last shipped yesterday. oauth2-proxy has 15,319 stars, 2,259 forks, 285 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Keycloak leads on adoption by 146% (37,689 vs 15,319 stars). Keycloak is written in Java under Apache-2.0; oauth2-proxy is written in Go under MIT. Keycloak has attracted 24% as many forks as stars, oauth2-proxy 15%. 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 | oauth2-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 38K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-04 | 2026-11-04 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.1K | ⑂ 2.3K |
| 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 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 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 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 Keycloak or oauth2-proxy more popular?
Keycloak has 37,689 GitHub stars and oauth2-proxy has 15,319. Keycloak has the larger community by that measure.
Are Keycloak and oauth2-proxy free?
Both are open source. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and oauth2-proxy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Keycloak and oauth2-proxy?
Keycloak is written in Java 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, Keycloak or oauth2-proxy?
Choose Keycloak if you want the larger community (37,689 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.