head to head · open source
Ory vs Authgear
Ory has 13,883 GitHub stars, 1,186 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Authgear has 2,055 stars, 125 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ory leads on adoption by 576% (13,883 vs 2,055 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 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 125 |
| 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
Ory Kratos is headless cloud native authentication and identity management system written in Go. It sits inside Ory stack and Security & Privacy / Identity & Access Management category. It exposes identity work over HTTP APIs. Services consume login, registration, recovery, verification, profile management instead of reimplementing them.
About Authgear
Authgear is open source identity and access management platform. It is managed identity platform for any app. It is open source Auth0, Clerk, Firebase Auth alternative. It is written in Go, licensed Apache 2.0, and lives in identity and access management ecosystem.
read the full Authgear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ory or Authgear more popular?
Ory has 13,883 GitHub stars and Authgear has 2,055. 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 (13,883 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.