Supabase Auth vs ZITADEL
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
ZITADEL
Cloud-native identity infrastructure with multi-tenancy built
| Feature | Supabase Auth | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 87 · Excellent | 95 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, kubernetes, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,569 | ★ 15,083 |
| First released | 2017 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Auth0 | Auth0, Okta, Firebase Auth |
What are Supabase Auth and ZITADEL?
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
ZITADEL
ZITADEL is an open-source identity and access management platform built for multi-tenant applications. It offers OpenID Connect, OAuth2, SAML, passwordless login and a powerful management API.
- Multi-tenancy as a first-class concept
- Passwordless and FIDO2 authentication
- Event-sourced audit trail
- Comprehensive gRPC and REST APIs
Supabase Auth vs ZITADEL: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — MIT for Supabase Auth versus Apache-2.0 for ZITADEL. Supabase Auth is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for ZITADEL. Supabase Auth is the more established project (first released 2017), while ZITADEL arrived in 2020. ZITADEL has the considerably larger community, at 15,083 GitHub stars versus 2,569.
Why pick each one
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
Choose ZITADEL if…
- Strong multi-tenant model
- Modern Go codebase
Watch out for
- Smaller community than Keycloak
Frequently asked questions
Is Supabase Auth or ZITADEL better?
Neither is universally better. ZITADEL has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Supabase Auth and ZITADEL free and open-source?
Yes. Supabase Auth is licensed under MIT and ZITADEL under Apache-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Supabase Auth and ZITADEL with Docker?
Supabase Auth: yes. ZITADEL: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Supabase Auth or ZITADEL?
Supabase Auth has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for ZITADEL. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.