SHSelfHostIndex

SAML Jackson vs ZITADEL

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

Not the right match-up?
SA SAML Jackson SAML and OIDC SSO service bridging enterprise providers VS ZITADEL Cloud-native identity infrastructure with multi-tenancy built
FeatureSAML JacksonZITADEL
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score80 · Excellent95 · Excellent
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 2,266★ 15,083
First released20222020
ReplacesAuth0, WorkOSAuth0, Okta, Firebase Auth

What are SAML Jackson and ZITADEL?

SAML Jackson

BoxyHQ Jackson (SAML Jackson) is a self-hosted service that abstracts SAML and OIDC enterprise single sign-on behind a simple OAuth 2.0 API. It lets apps add enterprise SSO without per-provider code.

  • SAML and OIDC abstraction
  • OAuth 2.0 API
  • Directory sync (SCIM)
  • Self-hostable

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

Read the full ZITADEL guide →

SAML Jackson vs ZITADEL: key differences

SAML Jackson is written in TypeScript, while ZITADEL is built with Go. ZITADEL is the more established project (first released 2020), while SAML Jackson arrived in 2022. ZITADEL has the considerably larger community, at 15,083 GitHub stars versus 2,266.

Why pick each one

Choose SAML Jackson if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (2.3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in TypeScript
SAML Jackson details

Choose ZITADEL if…

  • Strong multi-tenant model
  • Modern Go codebase

Watch out for

  • Smaller community than Keycloak
ZITADEL details

Frequently asked questions

Is SAML Jackson 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 SAML Jackson and ZITADEL free and open-source?

Yes. SAML Jackson is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run SAML Jackson and ZITADEL with Docker?

SAML Jackson: yes. ZITADEL: yes.

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