macrostack
Head-to-head · Identity & access management

Logto vs authentik

Both are alternatives to Okta. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.

Also searched as authentik vs Logto — same comparison, one verdict.

87

Logto

The fastest route from nothing to working sign-in.

OPEN SOURCEMPL-2.0 (open core; paid cloud tier)SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Logto is the pragmatic middle: pre-built sign-in UI, SDKs for the common frameworks, social logins, MFA and multi-tenancy, deployable with Docker in well under an hour. It is aimed squarely at product teams who need authentication to work this week rather than an identity platform to administer for a decade. MPL-2.0 with a paid cloud tier. It is the smallest and youngest option here, which is the honest caveat, but for a startup replacing Auth0 it removes the most friction.

85

authentik

Modern identity that a small team can actually operate.

OPEN SOURCEMIT core, with enterprise and documentation carve-outsSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

authentik was built on the premise that Keycloak is more than most companies need and harder than most can run. It covers SSO, MFA, SAML, OIDC, LDAP outposts and a genuinely good flow builder for custom login journeys, with a clean interface and a Docker Compose deployment. Around 23k stars. The licence is worth stating precisely: the core is MIT, the `website/` directory is CC BY-SA, and enterprise features sit under a separate commercial licence — so it is MIT-with-carve-outs rather than plainly MIT.

Side by side

 Logtoauthentik
Sovereignty Score8785
Open sourceYesYes
Self-hostableYesYes
Local-firstYesYes
LicenseMPL-2.0 (open core; paid cloud tier)MIT core, with enterprise and documentation carve-outs
PricingFree and self-hostable. Logto Cloud is paid with a free tier.Free and self-hostable for the open core. Enterprise tier is commercial.
The verdict

Logto edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.

Logto

Strengths

  • +Fastest of these from zero to a working sign-in flow
  • +Sign-in UI included — no screens to build
  • +Good SDKs for React, Next.js, Vue and the mobile frameworks
  • +MPL-2.0 is permissive and easy to reason about

Trade-offs

  • Youngest and smallest project on this page
  • Not built for employee SSO across hundreds of apps
  • Fewer enterprise features than Keycloak
  • Multi-tenancy is newer and less proven than ZITADEL's

authentik

Strengths

  • +By far the easiest of these to stand up and keep running
  • +Flow builder makes custom login journeys genuinely configurable
  • +Modern interface a small team can navigate without training
  • +Docker Compose deployment; sensible defaults

Trade-offs

  • Enterprise features are carved out of the MIT core
  • Younger and smaller than Keycloak
  • Single-vendor governance rather than a foundation
  • Fewer third-party integrations
See all 5 Okta alternatives →

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Facts verified 2026-08-03. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.

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