Open source authorization projects
Every project in the registry tagged authorization, ranked by real GitHub adoption.
Take control of your identity with a secure, flexible solution
Secure, customizable identity infrastructure for developers
Secure, seamless authentication for modern applications
Open Policy Agent (OPA) is an open source, general-purpose policy engine.
Expose your FastAPI endpoints as Model Context Protocol (MCP) tools, with Auth!
Modular auth, payments, emails, and analytics for your product
Build scalable authorization in minutes, not months
Secure, scalable API key management for developers
Secure, policy-based access control for modern applications
Related tags
Frequently asked questions
How many open source authorization projects are there?
This registry tracks 9 projects tagged authorization, with 102,312 GitHub stars between them. The most-adopted is Authentik at 25,600 stars.
Are these authorization projects free to use?
Yes — 6 of the 9 carry an explicit open-source licence across 4 distinct licences, so there is no licence fee. Where a project also sells a hosted or enterprise version, the self-hosted path remains free.
Which authorization project should I choose?
The list above is ranked by GitHub stars, but stars measure attention rather than fit. Check three things on each card: the licence (permissive versus copyleft), the language it is written in, and the last-push date — a high-star project that has not been pushed in a year is a liability.
Are these authorization projects still maintained?
8 of the 9 were pushed in the last 90 days, and every card shows its exact last-push date so you can see the rest. Sort your shortlist by that date before committing to a migration.