SHSelfHostIndex

node-oidc-provider vs Shibboleth Identity Provider

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?
NO node-oidc-provider Certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 provider for Node.js VS SH Shibboleth Identity Provider Standards-based SAML identity provider for federations
Featurenode-oidc-providerShibboleth Identity Provider
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseMITApache-2.0
LanguageJavaScriptJava
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM256 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentsource, dockerbare-metal, docker, source
GitHub stars★ 3,816★ 200
First released20162003
ReplacesAuth0, OktaOkta, Ping Identity

What are node-oidc-provider and Shibboleth Identity Provider?

node-oidc-provider

node-oidc-provider is an open-source, certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 provider implementation for Node.js. It can be self-hosted to issue tokens and act as an identity provider for applications.

  • Certified OIDC provider
  • OAuth 2.0 support
  • Embeddable in Node apps
  • Standards compliant

Shibboleth Identity Provider

The Shibboleth Identity Provider is an open-source SAML identity provider widely used in research and education federations. It enables secure single sign-on and attribute release across organizations.

  • SAML 2.0 identity provider
  • Attribute resolution and release policies
  • Federation metadata support
  • Used by academic federations worldwide

node-oidc-provider vs Shibboleth Identity Provider: key differences

Node-oidc-provider is written in JavaScript, while Shibboleth Identity Provider is built with Java. Licensing differs — MIT for node-oidc-provider versus Apache-2.0 for Shibboleth Identity Provider. Node-oidc-provider is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Shibboleth Identity Provider. Shibboleth Identity Provider is the more established project (first released 2003), while node-oidc-provider arrived in 2016. Node-oidc-provider has the considerably larger community, at 3,816 GitHub stars versus 200.

Why pick each one

Choose node-oidc-provider if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (3.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in JavaScript
node-oidc-provider details

Choose Shibboleth Identity Provider if…

  • Gold standard for SAML federations
  • Highly configurable

Watch out for

  • Complex setup
  • SAML-centric
Shibboleth Identity Provider details

Frequently asked questions

Is node-oidc-provider or Shibboleth Identity Provider better?

Neither is universally better. node-oidc-provider has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are node-oidc-provider and Shibboleth Identity Provider free and open-source?

Yes. node-oidc-provider is licensed under MIT and Shibboleth Identity Provider under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run node-oidc-provider and Shibboleth Identity Provider with Docker?

node-oidc-provider: yes. Shibboleth Identity Provider: yes.

Which is lighter on resources, node-oidc-provider or Shibboleth Identity Provider?

node-oidc-provider has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Shibboleth Identity Provider. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.

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