Ipsilon 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 | Ipsilon | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Python | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 80 | ★ 15,083 |
| First released | 2014 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Okta, PingFederate | Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth |
What are Ipsilon and ZITADEL?
Ipsilon
Ipsilon is an identity provider service that supports SAML and OpenID for federated single sign-on. It plugs into existing authentication backends like FreeIPA to centralize login for web applications.
- SAML identity provider
- OpenID support
- FreeIPA integration
- Pluggable backends
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
Ipsilon vs ZITADEL: key differences
Ipsilon is written in Python, while ZITADEL is built with Go. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for Ipsilon versus Apache-2.0 for ZITADEL. Ipsilon is the more established project (first released 2014), while ZITADEL arrived in 2020. ZITADEL has the considerably larger community, at 15,083 GitHub stars versus 80. ZITADEL lists first-class Docker deployment; Ipsilon does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Ipsilon if…
- Good FreeIPA companion
- Federation focused
Watch out for
- Small community
- Limited recent activity
Choose ZITADEL if…
- Strong multi-tenant model
- Modern Go codebase
Watch out for
- Smaller community than Keycloak
Frequently asked questions
Is Ipsilon or ZITADEL better?
ZITADEL is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Ipsilon if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Ipsilon and ZITADEL free and open-source?
Yes. Ipsilon is licensed under GPL-3.0 and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ipsilon and ZITADEL with Docker?
Ipsilon: check the project docs for container support. ZITADEL: yes.