Dex vs node-oidc-provider
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Dex | node-oidc-provider |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | source, docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,112 | ★ 3,816 |
| First released | 2016 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0 | Auth0, Okta |
What are Dex and node-oidc-provider?
Dex
Dex is an identity service that uses OpenID Connect to drive authentication for other applications. It acts as a portal to other identity providers through connectors such as LDAP, SAML and GitHub.
- OIDC federation broker
- Connectors for LDAP, SAML and GitHub
- Popular in Kubernetes environments
- Lightweight and stateless
node-oidc-provider
node-oidc-provider is an open-source, certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 provider implementation for Node.js. It can be self-hosted to issue tokens and act as an identity provider for applications.
- Certified OIDC provider
- OAuth 2.0 support
- Embeddable in Node apps
- Standards compliant
Dex vs node-oidc-provider: key differences
Dex is written in Go, while node-oidc-provider is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Dex versus MIT for node-oidc-provider. Dex is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for node-oidc-provider. Dex has the considerably larger community, at 11,112 GitHub stars versus 3,816.
Why pick each one
Choose Dex if…
- Great Kubernetes integration
- Simple and reliable
Watch out for
- No user management of its own
Choose node-oidc-provider if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Dex or node-oidc-provider better?
Dex is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider node-oidc-provider if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Dex and node-oidc-provider free and open-source?
Yes. Dex is licensed under Apache-2.0 and node-oidc-provider under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dex and node-oidc-provider with Docker?
Dex: yes. node-oidc-provider: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Dex or node-oidc-provider?
Dex has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for node-oidc-provider. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.