head to head · open source
teleport vs opa
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars, 2,181 forks, 3,262 open issues and last shipped 14 days ago. opa has 12,423 stars, 1,705 forks, 310 open issues and last shipped yesterday. teleport leads on adoption by 70% (21,061 vs 12,423 stars). teleport is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; opa is written in Go under Apache-2.0. teleport has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, opa 14%. opa 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
| teleport | opa | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 12K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-20 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.2K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick teleport if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick opa if
- You want the opa 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 opa fits your workflow better
About teleport
Teleport provides connectivity, authentication, access controls and audit for infrastructure. You might use Teleport to: Set up single sign on (SSO) for all of your cloud and on prem infrastructure. Protect access to servers, Kubernetes clusters, databases, Windows desktops, web applications, and cloud APIs without long lived keys or passwords. Establish secure tunnels to reach resources behind NATs and firewalls without VPNs or bastion hosts. Record and audit activity across SSH, Kubernetes, database, RDP, and web sessions. Apply consistent Role Based and Attribute Based Access Control (RBAC/ABAC) across users…
read the full teleport overview →
About opa
Open Policy Agent Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general purpose policy engine that enables unified, context aware policy enforcement across the entire stack. OPA is proud to be a graduated project in the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) landscape. For details read the CNCF announcement. Get started with OPA Write your first Rego policy with the Rego Playground or use it to share your work with others for feedback and support. Have a look at the Access Control examples if you're not sure where to start. Install the VS Code extension to get started locally with live diagnostics, debugging and…
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Frequently asked questions
Is teleport or opa more popular?
teleport has 21,061 GitHub stars and opa has 12,423. teleport has the larger community by that measure.
Are teleport and opa free?
Both are open source. teleport is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and opa under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between teleport and opa?
teleport is written in Go and opa 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, teleport or opa?
Choose teleport if you want the larger community (21,061 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose opa if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.