FusionAuth vs Hanko
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
FusionAuth
Complete authentication and authorization platform
VS
Hanko
Passkey-first authentication for modern applications
| Feature | FusionAuth | Hanko |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 70 · Good | 92 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Dockerfile | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 241 | ★ 9,036 |
| First released | 2018 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Okta | Auth0, Clerk |
What are FusionAuth and Hanko?
FusionAuth
FusionAuth is a self-hostable customer identity and access management platform supporting OAuth, OIDC, SAML, MFA, and user management. The community edition runs free on your own infrastructure.
- OAuth, OIDC and SAML support
- Multi-factor authentication
- User and tenant management
- Themable login pages
Hanko
Hanko is an open-source authentication solution built around passkeys and passwordless login. It can be self-hosted to provide modern, phishing-resistant authentication to web and mobile applications.
- Passkey-first login
- Passwordless flows
- Embeddable web component
- Self-hosted API
FusionAuth vs Hanko: key differences
FusionAuth is written in Dockerfile, while Hanko is built with Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for FusionAuth versus AGPL-3.0 for Hanko. Hanko is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for FusionAuth. FusionAuth is the more established project (first released 2018), while Hanko arrived in 2022. Hanko has the considerably larger community, at 9,036 GitHub stars versus 241.
Why pick each one
Choose FusionAuth if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Written in Dockerfile
Choose Hanko if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is FusionAuth or Hanko better?
Neither is universally better. Hanko has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are FusionAuth and Hanko free and open-source?
Yes. FusionAuth is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Hanko under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run FusionAuth and Hanko with Docker?
FusionAuth: yes. Hanko: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, FusionAuth or Hanko?
Hanko has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for FusionAuth. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.