head to head · open source
pocket-id vs webauthn
pocket-id has 9,257 GitHub stars, 314 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. webauthn has 612 stars, 60 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. pocket-id leads on adoption by 1,413% (9,257 vs 612 stars). pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause; webauthn is written in TypeScript under MIT. pocket-id has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, webauthn 10%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| pocket-id | webauthn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.3K | ★ 612 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-05-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 314 | ⑂ 60 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pocket-id if
- You weight community size — 9.3K 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 webauthn if
- You want the webauthn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and webauthn 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 webauthn
The @passwordless id/webauthn library is an open source, dependency free TypeScript helper that wraps the WebAuthn protocol so passkey registration, authentication and verification take only a few lines of code, and it is aimed at web developers who want passwordless sign in in the browser and on the server without hand writing the protocol.
read the full webauthn 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 pocket-id or webauthn more popular?
pocket-id has 9,257 GitHub stars and webauthn has 612. pocket-id has the larger community by that measure.
Are pocket-id and webauthn free?
Both are open source. pocket-id is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and webauthn under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pocket-id and webauthn?
pocket-id is written in Go and webauthn 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 webauthn?
Choose pocket-id if you want the larger community (9,257 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose webauthn if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.