head to head · open source
casbin vs SuperTokens
casbin has 20,475 GitHub stars, 1,767 forks, 38 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. SuperTokens has 15,340 stars, 788 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. casbin leads on adoption by 33% (20,475 vs 15,340 stars). casbin is written in Go under Apache-2.0; SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence. casbin has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, SuperTokens 5%. SuperTokens was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (authentication), 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
| casbin | SuperTokens | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 20K | ★ 15K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 788 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick casbin if
- You weight community size — 20K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick SuperTokens if
- You want the SuperTokens feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and SuperTokens fits your workflow better
About casbin
Apache Casbin ==== News : still worry about how to write the correct Apache Casbin policy? Apache Casbin online editor is coming to help! Try it at: Apache Casbin is a powerful and efficient open source access control library for Golang projects. It provides support for enforcing authorization based on various access control models. All the languages supported by Apache Casbin: Table of contents Supported models How it works? Features Installation Documentation Online editor Tutorials Get started Policy management Policy persistence Policy consistence between multiple nodes Role manager Benchmarks Examples…
read the full casbin overview →
About SuperTokens
Open Source auth provider Add secure login and session management to your apps. SDKs available for popular languages and front end frameworks e.g. Node.js, Go, Python, React.js, React Native, Vanilla JS, etc. Supertokens architecture is optimized to add secure authentication for your users without compromising on user and developer experience Three building blocks of SuperTokens architecture 1. Frontend SDK: Manages session tokens and renders login UI widgets 2. Backend SDK: Provides APIs for sign up, sign in, signout, session refreshing, etc. Your Frontend will talk to these APIs 3. SuperTokens Core: The HTTP…
read the full SuperTokens overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is casbin or SuperTokens more popular?
casbin has 20,475 GitHub stars and SuperTokens has 15,340. casbin has the larger community by that measure.
Are casbin and SuperTokens free?
Both are open source. casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0, and SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between casbin and SuperTokens?
casbin is written in Go and SuperTokens in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, casbin or SuperTokens?
Choose casbin if you want the larger community (20,475 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose SuperTokens if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.