Dex vs Rauthy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Rauthy
Lightweight OpenID Connect provider written in Rust
| Feature | Dex | Rauthy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,120 | ★ 1,339 |
| First released | 2016 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0 | Keycloak, Auth0 |
What are Dex and Rauthy?
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
Rauthy
Rauthy is an open-source, security-focused OpenID Connect provider and single sign-on solution written in Rust. It is designed to be lightweight and fully self-hosted with minimal resource usage.
- Lightweight OIDC provider
- Passkey support
- Low memory footprint
- Single binary option
Dex vs Rauthy: key differences
Dex is written in Go, while Rauthy is built with Rust. Dex is the more established project (first released 2016), while Rauthy arrived in 2023. Dex has the considerably larger community, at 11,120 GitHub stars versus 1,339.
Why pick each one
Choose Dex if…
- Great Kubernetes integration
- Simple and reliable
Watch out for
- No user management of its own
Choose Rauthy if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is Dex or Rauthy better?
Neither is universally better. Dex has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Dex and Rauthy free and open-source?
Yes. Dex is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Rauthy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Dex and Rauthy with Docker?
Dex: yes. Rauthy: yes.