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.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureCasdoorKanidm
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0MPL-2.0
LanguageGoRust
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 14,139★ 5,214
First released20212019
ReplacesAuth0, OktaActive Directory, Okta

Why pick each one

Choose Casdoor if…

  • Polished out-of-the-box UI
  • Broad protocol support
Casdoor details

Choose Kanidm if…

  • Memory safe and lightweight
  • Excellent passwordless support
Kanidm details

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.

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