Keycloak vs Rauthy
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Keycloak
Open-source identity and access management for modern apps
VS
Rauthy
Lightweight OpenID Connect provider written in Rust
| Feature | Keycloak | Rauthy |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 99 · Excellent | 84 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Rust |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 1,024 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, bare-metal | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 36,967 | ★ 1,339 |
| First released | 2014 | 2023 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0, Microsoft Entra ID | Keycloak, Auth0 |
What are Keycloak and Rauthy?
Keycloak
Keycloak is an enterprise-grade identity and access management solution backed by Red Hat. It provides single sign-on, identity brokering, social login and fine-grained authorization for applications and services.
- SSO with OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0
- Identity brokering and social login
- User federation with LDAP and Active Directory
- Fine-grained authorization services
Rauthy
Rauthy is an open-source, security-focused OpenID Connect provider and single sign-on solution written in Rust. It is designed to be lightweight and fully self-hosted with minimal resource usage.
- Lightweight OIDC provider
- Passkey support
- Low memory footprint
- Single binary option
Keycloak vs Rauthy: key differences
Keycloak is written in Java, while Rauthy is built with Rust. Rauthy is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Keycloak. Keycloak is the more established project (first released 2014), while Rauthy arrived in 2023. Keycloak has the considerably larger community, at 36,967 GitHub stars versus 1,339.
Why pick each one
Choose Keycloak if…
- Mature and battle-tested
- Strong enterprise feature set
Watch out for
- Steep learning curve
- Resource intensive
Choose Rauthy if…
- Released under the Apache-2.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
- Written in Rust
Frequently asked questions
Is Keycloak or Rauthy better?
Neither is universally better. Keycloak has the larger community, while Rauthy is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Keycloak and Rauthy free and open-source?
Yes. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Rauthy under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Keycloak and Rauthy with Docker?
Keycloak: yes. Rauthy: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Keycloak or Rauthy?
Rauthy has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Keycloak. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.