head to head · open source
Authentik vs pwd.sh
Authentik has 26,261 GitHub stars, 2,118 forks, 1,074 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pwd.sh has 1,564 stars, 132 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 20 days ago. Authentik leads on adoption by 1,579% (26,261 vs 1,564 stars). Authentik is written in Python under a custom or non-standard licence; pwd.sh is written in Shell under MIT. Authentik has attracted 8% as many forks as stars, pwd.sh 8%. Authentik 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.
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Side by side
| Authentik | pwd.sh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 26K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | Python | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-11-07 | 2026-10-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.1K | ⑂ 132 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Authentik if
- You weight community size — 26K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick pwd.sh if
- You want the pwd.sh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pwd.sh fits your workflow better
About Authentik
What is authentik? authentik is an open source Identity Provider (IdP) for modern SSO. It supports SAML, OAuth2/OIDC, LDAP, RADIUS, and more, designed for self hosting from small labs to large production clusters. Our enterprise offering is available for organizations to securely replace existing IdPs such as Okta, Auth0, Entra ID, and Ping Identity for robust, large scale identity management. Installation Docker Compose: recommended for small/test setups. See the documentation. Kubernetes (Helm Chart): recommended for larger setups. See the documentation and the Helm chart repository. AWS CloudFormation: deploy…
read the full Authentik overview →
About pwd.sh
pwd.sh is a Bash script to manage text secrets, such as passwords, using GnuPG. Each secret is saved to a randomly named file in a directory. An encrypted index maps usernames to secrets contained in files. Both the index and files can be decrypted directly with GnuPG without pwd.sh. Install Download from Releases, or to use the latest version, clone the repository: Or download the script directly: Use Run the script interactively using ./pwd.sh or symlink to a directory in PATH : w write (create) a secret r read (access) a secret l list secret names and paths s generate a random secret u generate a random…
read the full pwd.sh overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Authentik or pwd.sh more popular?
Authentik has 26,261 GitHub stars and pwd.sh has 1,564. Authentik has the larger community by that measure.
Are Authentik and pwd.sh free?
Both are open source. Authentik has no licence declared in this registry, and pwd.sh is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Authentik and pwd.sh?
Authentik is written in Python and pwd.sh in Shell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Authentik or pwd.sh?
Choose Authentik if you want the larger community (26,261 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pwd.sh if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.