SHSelfHostIndex

Casbin vs SimpleSAMLphp

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?
CA Casbin Authorization library supporting many access control models VS SI SimpleSAMLphp PHP implementation of SAML and identity federation
FeatureCasbinSimpleSAMLphp
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0LGPL-2.1
LanguageGoPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentsourcebare-metal, source, docker
GitHub stars★ 20,311★ 1,139
First released20172007
ReplacesAuth0 RBACOkta, PingFederate

Why pick each one

Choose Casbin if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • Mature project with 20.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in Go
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Casbin details

Choose SimpleSAMLphp if…

  • Proven and widely deployed
  • Flexible modules
SimpleSAMLphp details

Frequently asked questions

Is Casbin or SimpleSAMLphp better?

Neither is universally better. Casbin has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Casbin and SimpleSAMLphp free and open-source?

Yes. Casbin is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SimpleSAMLphp under LGPL-2.1. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Casbin and SimpleSAMLphp with Docker?

Casbin: check the project docs for container support. SimpleSAMLphp: yes.

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