Open Policy Agent vs Pocket ID
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?
Open Policy Agent
General-purpose policy engine for cloud-native stacks
VS
Pocket ID
Simple OIDC provider that uses only passkeys
| Feature | Open Policy Agent | Pocket ID |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,086 | ★ 8,737 |
| First released | 2016 | 2024 |
| Replaces | AWS IAM policies | Auth0, Authelia |
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
Choose Pocket ID if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Open Policy Agent or Pocket ID better?
Neither is universally better. Open Policy Agent has the larger community, while Pocket ID is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Open Policy Agent and Pocket ID free and open-source?
Yes. Open Policy Agent is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pocket ID under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Open Policy Agent and Pocket ID with Docker?
Open Policy Agent: yes. Pocket ID: yes.