head to head · open source
authelia vs pocket-id
authelia has 29,017 GitHub stars, 1,488 forks, 137 open issues and last shipped today. pocket-id has 9,230 stars, 312 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. authelia leads on adoption by 214% (29,017 vs 9,230 stars). authelia is written in Go under Apache-2.0; pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. authelia has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pocket-id 3%. authelia was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (passkeys), 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
| authelia | pocket-id | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 312 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick authelia if
- You weight community size — 29K 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 pocket-id if
- You want the pocket-id feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pocket-id fits your workflow better
About authelia
Authelia is an open source authentication and authorization server written in Go that provides single sign on and multi factor authentication for web applications through a web portal, aimed at self hosters and platform teams who need to protect services sitting behind a reverse proxy.
read the full authelia overview →
About pocket-id
Pocket ID is a self hosted, OpenID Connect Certified™ and OAuth 2.0 provider, written in Go, that authenticates users with passkeys and passwords never, aimed at anyone who wants single sign on for their own applications without standing up a heavyweight identity platform.
read the full pocket-id overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is authelia or pocket-id more popular?
authelia has 29,017 GitHub stars and pocket-id has 9,230. authelia has the larger community by that measure.
Are authelia and pocket-id free?
Both are open source. authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0 and pocket-id under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between authelia and pocket-id?
authelia is written in Go and pocket-id 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, authelia or pocket-id?
Choose authelia if you want the larger community (29,017 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose pocket-id if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.