head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs Permify
SuperTokens has 15,340 GitHub stars, 788 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Permify has 5,968 stars, 329 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 157% (15,340 vs 5,968 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; Permify is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Permify 6%. SuperTokens 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
| SuperTokens | Permify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 788 | ⑂ 329 |
| 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 Permify if
- You want the Permify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Permify fits your workflow better
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 →
About Permify
Exciting news: Permify has been acquired by FusionAuth! 🎉 Permify Blog Post Official Press Release FusionAuth Blog Post Permify Open Source Fine Grained Authorization Implement fine grained, scalable and extensible access controls within minutes to days instead of months. Inspired by Google’s consistent, global authorization system, Zanzibar What is Permify? Permify is an open source authorization service for easily building and managing fine grained, scalable, and extensible access controls for your applications and services. Inspired by Google’s consistent, global authorization system, Google Zanzibar Our…
read the full Permify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or Permify more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,340 GitHub stars and Permify has 5,968. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and Permify free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and Permify is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and Permify?
SuperTokens is written in Java and Permify 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 Permify?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,340 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Permify if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.