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The AI stack

The whole five-layer mapL3InfrastructureL4Models & toolingL5Applications

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About

How we rank & score
Best of · 5 tools ranked

The best Authentication & Identity

Every option ranked — open-source, self-hostable, and commercial — by our transparent Sovereignty Score, with honest trade-offs so you choose what fits you, not us.

Login, single sign-on, and identity-management platforms that handle user authentication, authorization, and access control for apps and APIs.

L5Applications — layer 5 of the AI stack
  1. 1

    Keycloak

    Top pickOpen source

    The mature, CNCF-backed open-source identity and access management server.

    Free / self-host (Docker image or standalone distribution); commercial support available via Red Hat build of Keycloak (RHBK) for enterprises that want a support contract. · in our Auth0 comparison →

    90
    sovereignty
    What is Keycloak? →
  2. 2

    authentik

    Open source

    A modern, self-hostable identity provider with a flexible visual flow builder.

    Free / self-host for the core MIT-licensed product; a hosted 'authentik Security' cloud offering and an Enterprise tier (support SLA, extra features under the separate enterprise/ license) are available paid. · in our Auth0 comparison →

    85
    sovereignty
    What is authentik? →
  3. 3

    Ory Kratos

    Open source

    A headless, API-only identity server for teams that want to build their own login UI.

    Free / self-host under Apache-2.0; Ory Network offers a managed hosted version with a free tier and paid usage-based plans for teams that prefer not to operate it themselves. · in our Auth0 comparison →

    84
    sovereignty
    What is Ory Kratos? →
  4. 4

    ZITADEL

    Open source

    A cloud-native, API-first identity platform with a generous self-hosted core.

    Free / self-host under AGPL-3.0; ZITADEL Cloud offers a managed free tier plus paid usage-based plans for teams that don't want to run the server themselves. · in our Auth0 comparison →

    82
    sovereignty
    What is ZITADEL? →
  5. 5

    SuperTokens

    Open source

    A developer-friendly, self-hostable auth core built for fast integration into existing apps.

    Free / self-host for the Apache-2.0 core; a managed SuperTokens cloud and a paid Enterprise tier (SSO/SAML, advanced MFA policies under the ee/ license) are available for teams that want those features or don't want to self-host. · in our Auth0 comparison →

    80
    sovereignty
    What is SuperTokens? →

Replacing a specific tool?

Head-to-head comparisons for each popular authentication & identity product.

Alternatives to Auth0

5 vetted options · top pick Keycloak

Straight head-to-heads

Two authentication & identity tools, side by side — verified facts and a plain verdict.

Keycloak vs authentik→Keycloak vs Ory Kratos→Keycloak vs ZITADEL→Keycloak vs SuperTokens→authentik vs Ory Kratos→authentik vs ZITADEL→authentik vs SuperTokens→Ory Kratos vs ZITADEL→Ory Kratos vs SuperTokens→ZITADEL vs SuperTokens→
The Macrostack brief

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