SHSelfHostIndex

Authorizer vs Ory Kratos

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
AU Authorizer Open-source auth solution with a ready-made UI VS OR Ory Kratos Headless identity and user management API server
FeatureAuthorizerOry Kratos
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score85 · Excellent89 · Excellent
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 2,007★ 13,888
First released20212020
ReplacesAuth0, Firebase AuthenticationAuth0, Firebase Auth

What are Authorizer and Ory Kratos?

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

Ory Kratos

Ory Kratos is an API-first identity and user management system. It handles login, registration, profile management, account recovery and multi-factor authentication without prescribing a user interface.

  • Headless API for full UI control
  • Self-service flows for login and recovery
  • Pluggable MFA including TOTP and WebAuthn
  • Cloud-native and stateless design

Read the full Ory Kratos guide →

Authorizer vs Ory Kratos: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Ory Kratos has the considerably larger community, at 13,888 GitHub stars versus 2,007.

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)
Authorizer details

Choose Ory Kratos if…

  • Extremely flexible architecture
  • Excellent for custom frontends

Watch out for

  • Requires building your own UI
  • Complex initial setup
Ory Kratos details

Frequently asked questions

Is Authorizer or Ory Kratos better?

Neither is universally better. Ory Kratos 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 Ory Kratos free and open-source?

Yes. Authorizer is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Ory Kratos under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Authorizer and Ory Kratos with Docker?

Authorizer: yes. Ory Kratos: yes.

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