SHSelfHostIndex

Dex vs LLDAP

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?
DE Dex OpenID Connect identity provider with pluggable connectors VS LL LLDAP Lightweight LDAP server with a simple web interface
FeatureDexLLDAP
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageGoRust
Setup difficultyMediumEasy
Min. RAM128 MB64 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 11,019★ 6,421
First released20162021
ReplacesOkta, Auth0Active Directory, OpenLDAP

Why pick each one

Choose Dex if…

  • Great Kubernetes integration
  • Simple and reliable
Dex details

Choose LLDAP if…

  • Very easy to deploy
  • Lightweight Rust binary
LLDAP details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dex or LLDAP better?

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

Are Dex and LLDAP free and open-source?

Yes. Dex is licensed under Apache-2.0 and LLDAP under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Dex and LLDAP with Docker?

Dex: yes. LLDAP: yes.

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