Casdoor vs Kanidm
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Kanidm
Modern, simple and secure identity management server
| Feature | Casdoor | Kanidm |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 14,459 | ★ 5,401 |
| First released | 2021 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Okta | Active Directory, Okta |
What are Casdoor and Kanidm?
Casdoor
Casdoor is an open-source identity and access management platform with a strong focus on a friendly user interface. It supports OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, CAS, LDAP and many social login providers.
- Supports OAuth, SAML, CAS and LDAP
- Dozens of built-in social login providers
- Multi-tenant organization support
- Web-based admin and login UI
Kanidm
Kanidm is an identity management platform written in Rust, focused on simplicity, security and correctness. It provides authentication for web applications, Unix systems and LDAP-aware services.
- OAuth2 and OpenID Connect provider
- Passkey-first authentication
- Unix and LDAP integration
- Strong security defaults
Casdoor vs Kanidm: key differences
Casdoor is written in Go, while Kanidm is built with Rust. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Casdoor versus MPL-2.0 for Kanidm. Kanidm is the more established project (first released 2019), while Casdoor arrived in 2021. Casdoor has the considerably larger community, at 14,459 GitHub stars versus 5,401.
Why pick each one
Choose Casdoor if…
- Polished out-of-the-box UI
- Broad protocol support
Watch out for
- Documentation can be uneven
Choose Kanidm if…
- Memory safe and lightweight
- Excellent passwordless support
Watch out for
- Smaller ecosystem and tooling
Frequently asked questions
Is Casdoor or Kanidm better?
Neither is universally better. Casdoor has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Casdoor and Kanidm free and open-source?
Yes. Casdoor is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Kanidm under MPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Casdoor and Kanidm with Docker?
Casdoor: yes. Kanidm: yes.