head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs pocket-id
SuperTokens has 15,340 GitHub stars, 788 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pocket-id has 9,965 stars, 349 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 54% (15,340 vs 9,965 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, pocket-id 4%. 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 | pocket-id | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 10.0K |
| License | Custom / other | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 788 | ⑂ 349 |
| 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 pocket-id if
- You want the pocket-id feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pocket-id 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 pocket-id
Pocket ID Pocket ID is an easy to use OpenID Connect Certified™ and OAuth 2.0 provider that lets users sign in to your applications with passkeys. → Try out the Demo The goal of Pocket ID is to be a simple and easy to use. There are other self hosted OIDC and OAuth 2.0 providers like Keycloak or ORY Hydra but they are often too complex for simple use cases. Additionally, what makes Pocket ID special is that it only supports passkey authentication, which means you don’t need a password. Some people might not like this idea at first, but I believe passkeys are the future, and once you try them, you’ll love them…
read the full pocket-id overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or pocket-id more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,340 GitHub stars and pocket-id has 9,965. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and pocket-id free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and pocket-id is licensed under BSD-2-Clause. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and pocket-id?
SuperTokens is written in Java and pocket-id 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 pocket-id?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,340 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose pocket-id if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.