Ory Hydra vs ZITADEL
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?
Compare Ory Hydra with
choose an app… Keycloak Authelia authentik Casbin SuperTokens Logto Casdoor Ory Kratos Open Policy Agent Apereo CAS Dex Hanko Pocket ID step-ca SpiceDB LLDAP Permify OpenFGA Ory Keto Kanidm Cerbos 2FAuth Boundary node-oidc-provider Ory Oathkeeper Vouch Proxy Buzzfeed sso GLAuth Keywhiz FreeRADIUS Supabase Auth Traefik Forward Auth SAML Jackson Caddy Security Authorizer Authgear privacyIDEA Topaz Warrant Rauthy FreeIPA SimpleSAMLphp Samba Active Directory DC Zentral WSO2 Identity Server Janssen Project midPoint LDAP Account Manager OpenLDAP Apache Syncope Univention Corporate Server FusionAuth Shibboleth Identity Provider OpenUnison ZITADEL Login UI LemonLDAP::NG Ipsilon Gluu Flex Hello Identity Coop
Compare ZITADEL with
choose an app… Keycloak Authelia authentik Casbin SuperTokens Logto Casdoor Ory Kratos Open Policy Agent Apereo CAS Dex Hanko Pocket ID step-ca SpiceDB LLDAP Permify OpenFGA Ory Keto Kanidm Cerbos 2FAuth Boundary node-oidc-provider Ory Oathkeeper Vouch Proxy Buzzfeed sso GLAuth Keywhiz FreeRADIUS Supabase Auth Traefik Forward Auth SAML Jackson Caddy Security Authorizer Authgear privacyIDEA Topaz Warrant Rauthy FreeIPA SimpleSAMLphp Samba Active Directory DC Zentral WSO2 Identity Server Janssen Project midPoint LDAP Account Manager OpenLDAP Apache Syncope Univention Corporate Server FusionAuth Shibboleth Identity Provider OpenUnison ZITADEL Login UI LemonLDAP::NG Ipsilon Gluu Flex Hello Identity Coop
Feature Ory Hydra ZITADEL Category Identity & SSO Identity & SSO License Apache-2.0 Apache-2.0 Language Go Go Setup difficulty Hard Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, kubernetes, binary docker, kubernetes, binary GitHub stars ★ 17,462 ★ 14,671 First released 2015 2020 Replaces Okta, Auth0 Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth
Why pick each one
Choose Ory Hydra if… Security focused and certified Integrates with any user store Ory Hydra details Choose ZITADEL if… Strong multi-tenant model Modern Go codebase ZITADEL details
Frequently asked questions Is Ory Hydra or ZITADEL better? Neither is universally better. Ory Hydra has the larger community, while ZITADEL is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ory Hydra and ZITADEL free and open-source? Yes. Ory Hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ory Hydra and ZITADEL with Docker? Ory Hydra: yes. ZITADEL: yes.