head to head · open source
tinyauth vs xxl-sso
tinyauth has 8,296 GitHub stars, 274 forks, 41 open issues and last shipped today. xxl-sso has 2,010 stars, 828 forks, 2 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tinyauth leads on adoption by 313% (8,296 vs 2,010 stars). tinyauth is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; xxl-sso is written in Java under GPL-3.0. tinyauth has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, xxl-sso 41%. tinyauth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, sso), 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
| tinyauth | xxl-sso | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 8.3K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Go | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-27 |
| Forks | ⑂ 274 | ⑂ 828 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tinyauth if
- You weight community size — 8.3K 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 xxl-sso if
- You want the xxl-sso feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and xxl-sso fits your workflow better
About tinyauth
Tinyauth is a small Go authentication and authorization server that runs either as authentication middleware in front of self hosted applications or as a standalone authentication server, and it is aimed at self hosters and homelab operators who want OpenID Certified™ single sign on without deploying a large identity platform.
read the full tinyauth overview →
About xxl-sso
XXL SSO is a lightweight, extensible, Java based distributed single sign on framework, released under GPL 3.0, that lets a user log in once and then reach every trusted application, and it is aimed at teams building authentication into a single web application, a cross domain enterprise estate, or a multi terminal front end/back end separated system.
read the full xxl-sso overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tinyauth or xxl-sso more popular?
tinyauth has 8,296 GitHub stars and xxl-sso has 2,010. tinyauth has the larger community by that measure.
Are tinyauth and xxl-sso free?
Both are open source. tinyauth is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and xxl-sso under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tinyauth and xxl-sso?
tinyauth is written in Go and xxl-sso in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tinyauth or xxl-sso?
Choose tinyauth if you want the larger community (8,296 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose xxl-sso if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.