Ory Kratos 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 Kratos | Supabase Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · 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 | ★ 13,888 | ★ 2,569 |
| First released | 2020 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Firebase Auth | Auth0 |
What are Ory Kratos and Supabase Auth?
Ory Kratos
Ory Kratos is an API-first identity and user management system. It handles login, registration, profile management, account recovery and multi-factor authentication without prescribing a user interface.
- Headless API for full UI control
- Self-service flows for login and recovery
- Pluggable MFA including TOTP and WebAuthn
- Cloud-native and stateless design
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 Kratos vs Supabase Auth: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — Apache-2.0 for Ory Kratos versus MIT for Supabase Auth. Supabase Auth is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Ory Kratos. Supabase Auth is the more established project (first released 2017), while Ory Kratos arrived in 2020. Ory Kratos has the considerably larger community, at 13,888 GitHub stars versus 2,569.
Why pick each one
Choose Ory Kratos if…
- Extremely flexible architecture
- Excellent for custom frontends
Watch out for
- Requires building your own UI
- Complex initial setup
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 Kratos or Supabase Auth better?
Neither is universally better. Ory Kratos 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 Kratos and Supabase Auth free and open-source?
Yes. Ory Kratos is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Supabase Auth under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ory Kratos and Supabase Auth with Docker?
Ory Kratos: yes. Supabase Auth: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Ory Kratos or Supabase Auth?
Supabase Auth has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Ory Kratos. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.