head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs Ory
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars, 841 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Ory has 13,880 stars, 1,186 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 10% (15,310 vs 13,880 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; Ory is written in Go under Apache-2.0. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Ory 9%. SuperTokens was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (hacktoberfest, login), 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
| SuperTokens | Ory | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 14K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-07-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 841 | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Ory if
- You want the Ory feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Ory 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 Ory
Ory Kratos is headless cloud native authentication and identity management system written in Go. It sits inside Ory stack and Security & Privacy / Identity & Access Management category. It exposes identity work over HTTP APIs. Services consume login, registration, recovery, verification, profile management instead of reimplementing them.
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Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or Ory more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars and Ory has 13,880. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and Ory free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and Ory is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and Ory?
SuperTokens is written in Java and Ory 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 Ory?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,310 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Ory if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.