Ory Hydra vs Supabase Auth
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Ory Hydra | Supabase Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 90 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 17,563 | ★ 2,569 |
| First released | 2015 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Okta, Auth0 | Auth0 |
What are Ory Hydra and Supabase Auth?
Ory Hydra
Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect provider. It is built to integrate with any existing identity system and issues tokens without managing user accounts itself.
- OpenID Certified implementation
- Low memory footprint
- Bring your own login and consent UI
- Scales horizontally
Supabase Auth
GoTrue is a lightweight JSON Web Token based authentication API for managing users and sessions, originally from Netlify and extended by Supabase. It is self-hosted as a small Go service.
- JWT-based auth API
- Email and OAuth login
- Lightweight Go service
- Self-hostable
Ory Hydra vs Supabase Auth: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Ory Hydra versus MIT for Supabase Auth. Supabase Auth is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Ory Hydra. Ory Hydra is the more established project (first released 2015), while Supabase Auth arrived in 2017. Ory Hydra has the considerably larger community, at 17,563 GitHub stars versus 2,569.
Why pick each one
Choose Ory Hydra if…
- Security focused and certified
- Integrates with any user store
Watch out for
- Only handles OAuth, not user management
Choose Supabase Auth if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Ory Hydra or Supabase Auth better?
Neither is universally better. Ory Hydra has the larger community, while Supabase Auth is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ory Hydra and Supabase Auth free and open-source?
Yes. Ory Hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Supabase Auth under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ory Hydra and Supabase Auth with Docker?
Ory Hydra: yes. Supabase Auth: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Ory Hydra or Supabase Auth?
Supabase Auth has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Ory Hydra. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.