authentik vs Pocket ID
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
authentik
Open-source identity provider with proxy outpost
VS
Pocket ID
Simple OIDC provider that uses only passkeys
| Feature | authentik | Pocket ID |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Reverse Proxy & Gateways | Identity & SSO |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, helm | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 23,666 | ★ 8,737 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0 | Auth0, Authelia |
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 Pocket ID if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is authentik or Pocket ID better?
Neither is universally better. authentik has the larger community, while Pocket ID is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are authentik and Pocket ID free and open-source?
Yes. authentik is licensed under MIT and Pocket ID under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run authentik and Pocket ID with Docker?
authentik: yes. Pocket ID: yes.