Authgear vs Keycloak
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
Keycloak
Open-source identity and access management for modern apps
| Feature | Authgear | Keycloak |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 99 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,065 | ★ 36,967 |
| First released | 2021 | 2014 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Okta, Auth0, Microsoft Entra ID |
What are Authgear and Keycloak?
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
Keycloak
Keycloak is an enterprise-grade identity and access management solution backed by Red Hat. It provides single sign-on, identity brokering, social login and fine-grained authorization for applications and services.
- SSO with OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0
- Identity brokering and social login
- User federation with LDAP and Active Directory
- Fine-grained authorization services
Authgear vs Keycloak: key differences
Authgear is written in Go, while Keycloak is built with Java. Keycloak is the more established project (first released 2014), while Authgear arrived in 2021. Keycloak has the considerably larger community, at 36,967 GitHub stars versus 2,065.
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 Keycloak if…
- Mature and battle-tested
- Strong enterprise feature set
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Resource intensive
Frequently asked questions
Is Authgear or Keycloak better?
Neither is universally better. Keycloak has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Authgear and Keycloak free and open-source?
Yes. Authgear is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Keycloak under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Authgear and Keycloak with Docker?
Authgear: yes. Keycloak: yes.