Authorizer vs Logto
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Logto
Developer-friendly authentication and authorization platform
| Feature | Authorizer | Logto |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 85 · Excellent | 94 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,005 | ★ 14,614 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Authentication | Auth0, Firebase Auth, Clerk |
What are Authorizer and Logto?
Authorizer
Authorizer is a self-hosted authentication and authorization service that provides social login, email and OTP login, and roles through a GraphQL API. It ships with prebuilt login pages and SDKs.
- Social and email login
- GraphQL auth API
- Prebuilt login UI
- Role-based access control
Logto
Logto is an open-source identity solution built for developers, offering passwordless sign-in, social login and enterprise SSO. It provides prebuilt sign-in experiences and SDKs for many frameworks.
- Prebuilt customizable sign-in experiences
- Passwordless and social authentication
- Multi-framework SDKs
- Role-based access control
Authorizer vs Logto: key differences
Authorizer is written in Go, while Logto is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Authorizer versus MPL-2.0 for Logto. Authorizer is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Logto. Logto has the considerably larger community, at 14,614 GitHub stars versus 2,005.
Why pick each one
Choose Authorizer if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
Choose Logto if…
- Great developer experience
- Modern UI and SDKs
Watch out for
- Younger project with evolving APIs
Frequently asked questions
Is Authorizer or Logto better?
Neither is universally better. Logto has the larger community, while Authorizer is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Authorizer and Logto free and open-source?
Yes. Authorizer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Logto under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Authorizer and Logto with Docker?
Authorizer: yes. Logto: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Authorizer or Logto?
Authorizer has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Logto. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.