SHSelfHostIndex

Casdoor vs Ory Kratos

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 Kratos Headless identity and user management API server
FeatureCasdoorOry Kratos
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score94 · Excellent89 · 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★ 13,888
First released20212020
ReplacesAuth0, OktaAuth0, Firebase Auth

What are Casdoor and Ory Kratos?

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 Kratos

Ory Kratos is an API-first identity and user management system. It handles login, registration, profile management, account recovery and multi-factor authentication without prescribing a user interface.

  • Headless API for full UI control
  • Self-service flows for login and recovery
  • Pluggable MFA including TOTP and WebAuthn
  • Cloud-native and stateless design

Read the full Ory Kratos guide →

Casdoor vs Ory Kratos: key differences

Both projects are written in Go.

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 Kratos if…

  • Extremely flexible architecture
  • Excellent for custom frontends

Watch out for

  • Requires building your own UI
  • Complex initial setup
Ory Kratos details

Frequently asked questions

Is Casdoor or Ory Kratos better?

Casdoor is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Ory Kratos if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Casdoor and Ory Kratos free and open-source?

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

Can I run Casdoor and Ory Kratos with Docker?

Casdoor: yes. Ory Kratos: yes.

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