Keycloak vs Open Policy Agent
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?
Keycloak
Open-source identity and access management for modern apps
VS
Open Policy Agent
General-purpose policy engine for cloud-native stacks
| Feature | Keycloak | Open Policy Agent |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,058 | ★ 12,086 |
| First released | 2014 | 2016 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0, Microsoft Entra ID | AWS IAM policies |
Why pick each one
Choose Open Policy Agent if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
- Mature project with 12.1k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or Open Policy Agent better?
Neither is universally better. Keycloak has the larger community, while Open Policy Agent is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Keycloak and Open Policy Agent free and open-source?
Yes. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Open Policy Agent under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Keycloak and Open Policy Agent with Docker?
Keycloak: yes. Open Policy Agent: yes.