head to head · open source
Ory vs pac4j
Ory has 13,959 GitHub stars, 1,214 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. pac4j has 2,539 stars, 710 forks, 5 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ory leads on adoption by 450% (13,959 vs 2,539 stars). Ory is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pac4j is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Ory has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, pac4j 28%. pac4j was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (identity), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ory | pac4j | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 14K | ★ 2.5K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-11-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.2K | ⑂ 710 |
| 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 pac4j if
- You want the pac4j feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and pac4j 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 pac4j
The security engine for Java: one API to add OpenID Connect, SAML, CAS, OAuth, JWT, LDAP... authentication and authorization to any Java framework. Documentation • Quick start • Frameworks • Concepts • Help ✨ Why pac4j? 🧩 One security engine, every framework : the same concepts and the same configuration for Spring Boot, Jakarta EE, Play, Vert.x, Javalin, JAX RS and many more. 🔐 All the major protocols : OpenID Connect, SAML 2, CAS, OAuth 1.0 & 2.0, JWT, LDAP, Kerberos, HTTP... Log in with Keycloak, Microsoft Entra ID, Google, GitHub, Okta, Auth0, any SAML IdP or CAS server. 🛡️…
read the full pac4j overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Identity & Access Management (IAM) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Identity & Access Management (IAM) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ory or pac4j more popular?
Ory has 13,959 GitHub stars and pac4j has 2,539. Ory has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ory and pac4j free?
Both are open source. Ory is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pac4j under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ory and pac4j?
Ory is written in Go and pac4j in Java. 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 pac4j?
Choose Ory if you want the larger community (13,959 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pac4j if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.