Apereo CAS vs FusionAuth
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
FusionAuth
Complete authentication and authorization platform
| Feature | Apereo CAS | FusionAuth |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 70 · Good |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Dockerfile |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,376 | ★ 241 |
| First released | 2004 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Okta, Ping Identity | Auth0, Okta |
What are Apereo CAS and FusionAuth?
Apereo CAS
Apereo CAS is an open-source, enterprise single sign-on solution and identity provider. Widely used in higher education, it supports the CAS protocol along with SAML, OAuth2 and OpenID Connect.
- CAS, SAML, OAuth2 and OIDC protocols
- Multi-factor authentication
- Pluggable authentication handlers
- Delegated and federated authentication
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
Apereo CAS vs FusionAuth: key differences
Apereo CAS is written in Java, while FusionAuth is built with Dockerfile. Apereo CAS is the more established project (first released 2004), while FusionAuth arrived in 2018. Apereo CAS has the considerably larger community, at 11,376 GitHub stars versus 241.
Why pick each one
Choose Apereo CAS if…
- Mature SSO with broad protocol support
- Widely adopted in academia
Watch out for
- Configuration is involved
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 Apereo CAS or FusionAuth better?
Neither is universally better. Apereo CAS 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 Apereo CAS and FusionAuth free and open-source?
Yes. Apereo CAS is licensed under Apache-2.0 and FusionAuth under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Apereo CAS and FusionAuth with Docker?
Apereo CAS: yes. FusionAuth: yes.