Authgear vs FusionAuth
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Authgear
Open-source authentication and user management server
VS
FusionAuth
Complete authentication and authorization platform
| Feature | Authgear | FusionAuth |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 70 · Good |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Dockerfile |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,065 | ★ 241 |
| First released | 2021 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Auth0, Okta |
What are Authgear and FusionAuth?
Authgear
Authgear is an open-source authentication-as-a-service platform supporting passwordless login, social login, and multi-factor authentication. It is self-hosted to provide identity for web and mobile apps.
- Passwordless and social login
- Built-in MFA
- User management dashboard
- OIDC compliant
FusionAuth
FusionAuth is a self-hostable customer identity and access management platform supporting OAuth, OIDC, SAML, MFA, and user management. The community edition runs free on your own infrastructure.
- OAuth, OIDC and SAML support
- Multi-factor authentication
- User and tenant management
- Themable login pages
Authgear vs FusionAuth: key differences
Authgear is written in Go, while FusionAuth is built with Dockerfile. FusionAuth is the more established project (first released 2018), while Authgear arrived in 2021. Authgear has the considerably larger community, at 2,065 GitHub stars versus 241.
Why pick each one
Choose Authgear if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Active community (2.1k GitHub stars)
Choose FusionAuth if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Written in Dockerfile
Frequently asked questions
Is Authgear or FusionAuth better?
Neither is universally better. Authgear has the larger community, while FusionAuth is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Authgear and FusionAuth free and open-source?
Yes. Authgear is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FusionAuth under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Authgear and FusionAuth with Docker?
Authgear: yes. FusionAuth: yes.