Hanko vs ZITADEL
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
ZITADEL
Cloud-native identity infrastructure with multi-tenancy built
| Feature | Hanko | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,036 | ★ 15,083 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Clerk | Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth |
What are Hanko and ZITADEL?
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
ZITADEL
ZITADEL is an open-source identity and access management platform built for multi-tenant applications. It offers OpenID Connect, OAuth2, SAML, passwordless login and a powerful management API.
- Multi-tenancy as a first-class concept
- Passwordless and FIDO2 authentication
- Event-sourced audit trail
- Comprehensive gRPC and REST APIs
Hanko vs ZITADEL: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Hanko versus Apache-2.0 for ZITADEL. ZITADEL is the more established project (first released 2020), while Hanko arrived in 2022.
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 ZITADEL if…
- Strong multi-tenant model
- Modern Go codebase
Watch out for
- Smaller community than Keycloak
Frequently asked questions
Is Hanko 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 Hanko and ZITADEL free and open-source?
Yes. Hanko is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hanko and ZITADEL with Docker?
Hanko: yes. ZITADEL: yes.