SHSelfHostIndex

Open Policy Agent vs SpiceDB

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?
OP Open Policy Agent General-purpose policy engine for cloud-native stacks VS SP SpiceDB Open-source Zanzibar-inspired permissions database
FeatureOpen Policy AgentSpiceDB
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, kubernetes, binary
GitHub stars★ 12,086★ 6,947
First released20162021
ReplacesAWS IAM policiesAuth0 FGA, OpenFGA

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
Open Policy Agent details

Choose SpiceDB if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 6.9k GitHub stars
SpiceDB details

Frequently asked questions

Is Open Policy Agent or SpiceDB better?

Open Policy Agent is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider SpiceDB if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Open Policy Agent and SpiceDB free and open-source?

Yes. Open Policy Agent is licensed under Apache-2.0 and SpiceDB under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Open Policy Agent and SpiceDB with Docker?

Open Policy Agent: yes. SpiceDB: yes.

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