authentik vs CrowdSec
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted reverse proxy & gateways options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
authentik
Open-source identity provider with proxy outpost
VS
CrowdSec
Collaborative open-source intrusion prevention system
| Feature | authentik | CrowdSec |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Reverse Proxy & Gateways |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 23,666 | ★ 14,461 |
| First released | 2020 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0 | Cloudflare WAF, Fail2ban |
Why pick each one
Choose authentik if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 23.7k GitHub stars
Choose CrowdSec if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 14.5k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is authentik or CrowdSec better?
Neither is universally better. authentik has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are authentik and CrowdSec free and open-source?
Yes. authentik is licensed under MIT and CrowdSec under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run authentik and CrowdSec with Docker?
authentik: yes. CrowdSec: yes.