Hanko vs Rauthy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Hanko
Passkey-first authentication for modern applications
VS
Rauthy
Lightweight OpenID Connect provider written in Rust
| Feature | Hanko | Rauthy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,036 | ★ 1,339 |
| First released | 2022 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Clerk | Keycloak, Auth0 |
What are Hanko and Rauthy?
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
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
Hanko vs Rauthy: key differences
Hanko is written in Go, while Rauthy is built with Rust. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Hanko versus Apache-2.0 for Rauthy. Rauthy is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Hanko. Hanko has the considerably larger community, at 9,036 GitHub stars versus 1,339.
Why pick each one
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
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 Hanko or Rauthy 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 Hanko and Rauthy free and open-source?
Yes. Hanko is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Rauthy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hanko and Rauthy with Docker?
Hanko: yes. Rauthy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hanko or Rauthy?
Rauthy has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Hanko. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.