head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs Permify
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars, 841 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Permify has 5,952 stars, 323 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 157% (15,310 vs 5,952 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 5%. Permify 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 | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 841 | ⑂ 323 |
| 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
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 Permify
Permify is an open source authorization service for building and managing fine grained, scalable, and extensible access controls for applications and services. It is inspired by Google's consistent, global authorization system, Zanzibar, and it lives in the Go ecosystem, distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license. The project is categorized under Security & Privacy, specifically Identity & Access Management, and it has been acquired by FusionAuth.
read the full Permify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or Permify more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars and Permify has 5,952. 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 (15,310 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.