Keycloak vs ZITADEL Login UI

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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FeatureKeycloakZITADEL Login UI
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageJavaTypeScript
Setup difficultyHardMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, bare-metaldocker, source
GitHub stars★ 36,058★ 113
First released20142023
ReplacesOkta, Auth0, Microsoft Entra IDAuth0 Universal Login

Why pick each one

Choose Keycloak if…

  • Mature and battle-tested
  • Strong enterprise feature set
Keycloak details

Choose ZITADEL Login UI if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in TypeScript
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
ZITADEL Login UI details

Frequently asked questions

Is Keycloak or ZITADEL Login UI better?

Neither is universally better. Keycloak has the larger community, while ZITADEL Login UI is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Keycloak and ZITADEL Login UI free and open-source?

Yes. Keycloak is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZITADEL Login UI under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Keycloak and ZITADEL Login UI with Docker?

Keycloak: yes. ZITADEL Login UI: yes.

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