SHSelfHostIndex

Ory Keto vs Warrant

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 Keto Permission and authorization server based on Zanzibar VS WA Warrant Open-source authorization service for fine-grained access
FeatureOry KetoWarrant
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score87 · Excellent39 · At risk
CategoryIdentity & SSOIdentity & SSO
LicenseApache-2.0Apache-2.0
LanguageGoGo
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, kubernetes, binarydocker, binary
GitHub stars★ 5,402★ 1,337
First released20182022
ReplacesAuth0 FGA, OpenFGAAuth0 FGA

What are Ory Keto and Warrant?

Ory Keto

Ory Keto is an open-source permission server inspired by Google's Zanzibar paper. It answers fine-grained authorization questions and is self-hosted to manage access control for applications.

  • Zanzibar-style permissions
  • Relationship-based access
  • gRPC and REST APIs
  • Fast checks

Warrant

Warrant is an open-source, centralized authorization service for defining and enforcing fine-grained, relationship-based access control across applications. It is self-hosted with REST and SDK access.

  • Relationship-based access control
  • Centralized policy service
  • REST API and SDKs
  • Self-hostable

Ory Keto vs Warrant: key differences

Both projects are written in Go. Ory Keto is the more established project (first released 2018), while Warrant arrived in 2022. Ory Keto has the considerably larger community, at 5,402 GitHub stars versus 1,337.

Why pick each one

Choose Ory Keto if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 5.4k GitHub stars
Ory Keto details

Choose Warrant if…

  • Released under the Apache-2.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.3k GitHub stars)
  • Written in Go
Warrant details

Frequently asked questions

Is Ory Keto or Warrant better?

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

Are Ory Keto and Warrant free and open-source?

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

Can I run Ory Keto and Warrant with Docker?

Ory Keto: yes. Warrant: yes.

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