Ipsilon vs Ory Kratos

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureIpsilonOry Kratos
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseGPL-3.0Apache-2.0
LanguagePythonGo
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM512 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 80★ 13,815
First released20142020
ReplacesOkta, PingFederateAuth0, Firebase Auth

Why pick each one

Choose Ipsilon if…

  • Good FreeIPA companion
  • Federation focused
Ipsilon details

Choose Ory Kratos if…

  • Extremely flexible architecture
  • Excellent for custom frontends
Ory Kratos details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ipsilon or Ory Kratos better?

Neither is universally better. Ory Kratos has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Ipsilon and Ory Kratos free and open-source?

Yes. Ipsilon is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Ory Kratos under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Ipsilon and Ory Kratos with Docker?

Ipsilon: check the project docs for container support. Ory Kratos: yes.

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