Ory Kratos vs Pocket ID
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?
Ory Kratos
Headless identity and user management API server
VS
Pocket ID
Simple OIDC provider that uses only passkeys
| Feature | Ory Kratos | Pocket ID |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, kubernetes, binary | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 13,815 | ★ 8,737 |
| First released | 2020 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Auth0, Authelia |
Why pick each one
Choose Ory Kratos if…
- Extremely flexible architecture
- Excellent for custom frontends
Choose Pocket ID if…
- Released under the BSD-2-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 8.7k GitHub stars
Frequently asked questions
Is Ory Kratos or Pocket ID better?
Neither is universally better. Ory Kratos has the larger community, while Pocket ID is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Ory Kratos and Pocket ID free and open-source?
Yes. Ory Kratos is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Pocket ID under BSD-2-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ory Kratos and Pocket ID with Docker?
Ory Kratos: yes. Pocket ID: yes.