Hello Identity Coop vs ZITADEL
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
ZITADEL
Cloud-native identity infrastructure with multi-tenancy built
| Feature | Hello Identity Coop | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 69 · Good | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 7 | ★ 15,083 |
| First released | 2022 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth |
What are Hello Identity Coop and ZITADEL?
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
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
Hello Identity Coop vs ZITADEL: key differences
Hello Identity Coop is written in TypeScript, while ZITADEL is built with Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Hello Identity Coop versus Apache-2.0 for ZITADEL. Hello Identity Coop is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for ZITADEL. ZITADEL is the more established project (first released 2020), while Hello Identity Coop arrived in 2022. ZITADEL has the considerably larger community, at 15,083 GitHub stars versus 7.
Why pick each one
Choose Hello Identity Coop if…
- Simple passwordless onboarding
- Open standards
Watch out for
- Younger project
Choose ZITADEL if…
- Strong multi-tenant model
- Modern Go codebase
Watch out for
- Smaller community than Keycloak
Frequently asked questions
Is Hello Identity Coop 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 Hello Identity Coop and ZITADEL free and open-source?
Yes. Hello Identity Coop is licensed under MIT and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hello Identity Coop and ZITADEL with Docker?
Hello Identity Coop: yes. ZITADEL: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hello Identity Coop or ZITADEL?
Hello Identity Coop has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for ZITADEL. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.