SHSelfHostIndex

Ory Hydra vs Zentral

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?
OR Ory Hydra Certified OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect server VS ZE Zentral Endpoint identity, configuration and compliance platform
FeatureOry HydraZentral
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoPython
Setup difficultyHardHard
Min. RAM256 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker
GitHub stars★ 17,462★ 875
First released20152016
ReplacesOkta, Auth0Jamf, Kandji

Why pick each one

Choose Ory Hydra if…

  • Security focused and certified
  • Integrates with any user store
Ory Hydra details

Choose Zentral if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Written in Python
Zentral details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ory Hydra or Zentral better?

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

Are Ory Hydra and Zentral free and open-source?

Yes. Ory Hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zentral under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Ory Hydra and Zentral with Docker?

Ory Hydra: yes. Zentral: yes.

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