head to head · open source
pocket-id vs Hexclave
pocket-id has 9,230 GitHub stars, 312 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hexclave has 6,863 stars, 522 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pocket-id leads on adoption by 34% (9,230 vs 6,863 stars). pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause; Hexclave is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. pocket-id has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, Hexclave 8%. pocket-id 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
| pocket-id | Hexclave | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.2K | ★ 6.9K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 312 | ⑂ 522 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pocket-id if
- You weight community size — 9.2K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Hexclave if
- You want the Hexclave feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Hexclave fits your workflow better
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 →
About Hexclave
Hexclave is an open source user infrastructure platform written in TypeScript and distributed under a license the repository metadata lists as NOASSERTION, while the README badge states MIT / AGPLv3. It describes itself as handling everything around a product's users: authentication, teams, payments, emails, analytics, and more. The project lives in the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem, shipping SDKs for Next.js, React, and plain JavaScript, and it is positioned against hosted identity and user management services such as Auth0 and Clerk, both of which appear in its topic list.
read the full Hexclave overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pocket-id or Hexclave more popular?
pocket-id has 9,230 GitHub stars and Hexclave has 6,863. pocket-id has the larger community by that measure.
Are pocket-id and Hexclave free?
Both are open source. pocket-id is licensed under BSD-2-Clause, and Hexclave has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between pocket-id and Hexclave?
pocket-id is written in Go and Hexclave in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, pocket-id or Hexclave?
Choose pocket-id if you want the larger community (9,230 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose Hexclave if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.