head to head · open source
SuperTokens vs Zitadel
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars, 841 forks, 155 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Zitadel has 15,041 stars, 1,309 forks, 1,171 open issues and last shipped yesterday. SuperTokens leads on adoption by 2% (15,310 vs 15,041 stars). SuperTokens is written in Java under a custom or non-standard licence; Zitadel is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. SuperTokens has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Zitadel 9%. Zitadel was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, 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 | Zitadel | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 15K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Java | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 841 | ⑂ 1.3K |
| 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 Zitadel if
- You want the Zitadel 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 Zitadel 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 Zitadel
Zitadel is an open source identity and access management platform written in Go and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the open source IAM ecosystem and provides identity infrastructure for developers who need to operate an authentication and authorization layer themselves.
read the full Zitadel overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is SuperTokens or Zitadel more popular?
SuperTokens has 15,310 GitHub stars and Zitadel has 15,041. SuperTokens has the larger community by that measure.
Are SuperTokens and Zitadel free?
Both are open source. SuperTokens has no licence declared in this registry, and Zitadel is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between SuperTokens and Zitadel?
SuperTokens is written in Java and Zitadel 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 Zitadel?
Choose SuperTokens if you want the larger community (15,310 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Zitadel if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.