head to head · open source
Ory vs Authgear
Ory has 13,949 GitHub stars, 1,212 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Authgear has 2,140 stars, 130 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ory leads on adoption by 552% (13,949 vs 2,140 stars). Ory is written in Go under Apache-2.0; Authgear is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Ory has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Authgear 6%. Authgear was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (identity, login), 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
| Ory | Authgear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 130 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ory if
- You weight community size — 14K 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 Authgear if
- You want the Authgear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Authgear fits your workflow better
About Ory
Chat · Discussions · Newsletter · Docs · Try Ory Network · Jobs Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system for cloud native applications. It centralizes login, registration, recovery, verification, and profile management flows so your services consume them instead of reimplementing them. Table of contents What is Ory Kratos? Why Ory Kratos Migrating from Auth0, Okta, and similar providers Deployment options Use Ory Kratos on the Ory Network Self host Ory Kratos Quickstart Who is using it? What is Ory Kratos? Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system that follows cloud…
About Authgear
📘 Docs ☁️ SaaS Cloud ✨ Demo 💬 Discord Authgear: Open source alternative to Auth0 / Clerk / Firebase Auth Authgear is an open source extensible turnkey solution for all of your consumer authentication needs. Authgear gets you started in 5 minutes with developer friendly SDKs and a comprehensive portal. Available for self hosting and on Authgear Cloud. With a wide range of out of the box features, it's perfect for SaaS product and multi apps ecosystem, such as: Passwordless login: Magic link/OTP with Email, SMS, WhatsApp Passkeys Pre built signup/login page Pre built user account settings page Biometric Login on…
read the full Authgear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ory or Authgear more popular?
Ory has 13,949 GitHub stars and Authgear has 2,140. Ory has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ory and Authgear free?
Both are open source. Ory is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Authgear under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ory and Authgear?
Ory is written in Go and Authgear 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, Ory or Authgear?
Choose Ory if you want the larger community (13,949 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Authgear if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.