SHSelfHostIndex

Casdoor vs Ory Hydra

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 Casdoor UI-first identity and access management with SSO support VS OR Ory Hydra Certified OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect server
FeatureCasdoorOry Hydra
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score94 · Excellent90 · Excellent
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 14,465★ 17,563
First released20212015
ReplacesAuth0, OktaOkta, Auth0

What are Casdoor and Ory Hydra?

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

Read the full Casdoor guide →

Ory Hydra

Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect provider. It is built to integrate with any existing identity system and issues tokens without managing user accounts itself.

  • OpenID Certified implementation
  • Low memory footprint
  • Bring your own login and consent UI
  • Scales horizontally

Read the full Ory Hydra guide →

Casdoor vs Ory Hydra: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Ory Hydra is the more established project (first released 2015), while Casdoor arrived in 2021.

Why pick each one

Choose Casdoor if…

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

Watch out for

  • Documentation can be uneven
Casdoor details

Choose Ory Hydra if…

  • Security focused and certified
  • Integrates with any user store

Watch out for

  • Only handles OAuth, not user management
Ory Hydra details

Frequently asked questions

Is Casdoor or Ory Hydra better?

Neither is universally better. Ory Hydra has the larger community, while Casdoor is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Casdoor and Ory Hydra free and open-source?

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

Can I run Casdoor and Ory Hydra with Docker?

Casdoor: yes. Ory Hydra: yes.

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