SHSelfHostIndex

Dex vs ZITADEL

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 ZI ZITADEL Cloud-native identity infrastructure with multi-tenancy built in
FeatureDexZITADEL
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 11,019★ 14,671
First released20162020
ReplacesOkta, Auth0Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth

Why pick each one

Choose Dex if…

  • Great Kubernetes integration
  • Simple and reliable
Dex details

Choose ZITADEL if…

  • Strong multi-tenant model
  • Modern Go codebase
ZITADEL details

Frequently asked questions

Is Dex or ZITADEL better?

Neither is universally better. ZITADEL has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Dex and ZITADEL free and open-source?

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

Can I run Dex and ZITADEL with Docker?

Dex: yes. ZITADEL: yes.

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