head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs pocket-id
SuperTokens has 15,315 GitHub stars, 842 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pocket-id has 9,230 stars, 312 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 66% (15,315 vs 9,230 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pocket-id 3%. pocket-id was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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
| SuperTokens | pocket-id | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 842 | ⑂ 312 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick SuperTokens if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- 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 SuperTokens
SuperTokens is an open source authentication and session management platform for applications that need login, sign up, sign out, and user data control. It sits in the identity and access management ecosystem and is described as an alternative to Auth0, Firebase Auth, and AWS Cognito. It separates work into a frontend SDK, a backend SDK, and a Java based SuperTokens Core service that handles authentication logic and database operations.
read the full SuperTokens 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 →
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 SuperTokens or pocket-id more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,315 GitHub stars and pocket-id has 9,230. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and pocket-id free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and pocket-id is licensed under BSD-2-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and pocket-id?
SuperTokens is written in Java 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, SuperTokens or pocket-id?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,315 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pocket-id if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.