head to head · open source
pocket-id vs webauthn-ruby
pocket-id has 10,065 GitHub stars, 353 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. webauthn-ruby has 777 stars, 70 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. pocket-id leads on adoption by 1,195% (10,065 vs 777 stars). pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause; webauthn-ruby is written in Ruby under MIT. pocket-id has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, webauthn-ruby 9%. 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 | webauthn-ruby | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 777 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | Go | Ruby |
| Last push | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-23 |
| Forks | ⑂ 353 | ⑂ 70 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick pocket-id if
- You weight community size — 10K 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-ruby if
- You want the webauthn-ruby feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You evaluated both and webauthn-ruby fits your workflow better
About pocket-id
Pocket ID Pocket ID is an easy to use OpenID Connect Certified™ and OAuth 2.0 provider that lets users sign in to your applications with passkeys. → Try out the Demo The goal of Pocket ID is to be a simple and easy to use. There are other self hosted OIDC and OAuth 2.0 providers like Keycloak or ORY Hydra but they are often too complex for simple use cases. Additionally, what makes Pocket ID special is that it only supports passkey authentication, which means you don’t need a password. Some people might not like this idea at first, but I believe passkeys are the future, and once you try them, you’ll love them…
read the full pocket-id overview →
About webauthn-ruby
webauthn ruby WebAuthn ruby server library Makes your Ruby/Rails web server become a functional WebAuthn Relying Party. Takes care of the server side operations needed to register or authenticate a user's public key credential (also called a "passkey"), including the necessary cryptographic checks. Table of Contents Security Background Prerequisites Install Usage API Attestation Statement Formats Testing Your Integration Contributing License Security Please report security vulnerabilities to security@cedarcode.com. More : SECURITY Background What is WebAuthn? WebAuthn (Web Authentication) is a W3C standard for…
read the full webauthn-ruby overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is pocket-id or webauthn-ruby more popular?
pocket-id has 10,065 GitHub stars and webauthn-ruby has 777. pocket-id has the larger community by that measure.
Are pocket-id and webauthn-ruby free?
Both are open source. pocket-id is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and webauthn-ruby under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between pocket-id and webauthn-ruby?
pocket-id is written in Go and webauthn-ruby in Ruby. 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-ruby?
Choose pocket-id if you want the larger community (10,065 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose webauthn-ruby if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.