FusionAuth vs Rauthy
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
Rauthy
Lightweight OpenID Connect provider written in Rust
| Feature | FusionAuth | Rauthy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 70 · Good | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Dockerfile | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 241 | ★ 1,339 |
| First released | 2018 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Okta | Keycloak, Auth0 |
What are FusionAuth and Rauthy?
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
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
FusionAuth vs Rauthy: key differences
FusionAuth is written in Dockerfile, while Rauthy is built with Rust. Rauthy is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for FusionAuth. FusionAuth is the more established project (first released 2018), while Rauthy arrived in 2023. Rauthy has the considerably larger community, at 1,339 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 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 FusionAuth or Rauthy better?
Neither is universally better. Rauthy has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are FusionAuth and Rauthy free and open-source?
Yes. FusionAuth is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Rauthy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run FusionAuth and Rauthy with Docker?
FusionAuth: yes. Rauthy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, FusionAuth or Rauthy?
Rauthy has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for FusionAuth. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.