Hello Identity Coop vs Ory Hydra
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hello Identity Coop | Ory Hydra |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 69 · Good | 90 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7 | ★ 17,563 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Okta, Auth0 |
What are Hello Identity Coop and Ory Hydra?
Hello Identity Coop
Hello is an open-source identity and login service that lets users authenticate with email, phone or social providers without passwords. The wallet and broker components can be self-hosted.
- Passwordless login flows
- Email, phone and social providers
- Standard OpenID Connect
- Developer SDKs and integrations
Ory Hydra
Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect provider. It is built to integrate with any existing identity system and issues tokens without managing user accounts itself.
- OpenID Certified implementation
- Low memory footprint
- Bring your own login and consent UI
- Scales horizontally
Hello Identity Coop vs Ory Hydra: key differences
Hello Identity Coop is written in TypeScript, while Ory Hydra is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Hello Identity Coop versus Apache-2.0 for Ory Hydra. Ory Hydra is the more established project (first released 2015), while Hello Identity Coop arrived in 2022. Ory Hydra has the considerably larger community, at 17,563 GitHub stars versus 7.
Why pick each one
Choose Hello Identity Coop if…
- Simple passwordless onboarding
- Open standards
Watch out for
- Younger project
Choose Ory Hydra if…
- Security focused and certified
- Integrates with any user store
Watch out for
- Only handles OAuth, not user management
Frequently asked questions
Is Hello Identity Coop or Ory Hydra better?
Neither is universally better. Ory Hydra has the larger community, while Hello Identity Coop is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hello Identity Coop and Ory Hydra free and open-source?
Yes. Hello Identity Coop is licensed under MIT and Ory Hydra under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hello Identity Coop and Ory Hydra with Docker?
Hello Identity Coop: yes. Ory Hydra: yes.