authentik vs ZITADEL
Both are alternatives to Auth0. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
authentik
A modern, self-hostable identity provider with a flexible visual flow builder.
authentik is a self-hosted identity provider built around a visual 'flow' system that lets you customize login, enrollment, and recovery steps without deep protocol expertise. It supports OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, and social login, and ships as a straightforward Docker Compose or Helm deployment aimed at teams who want Keycloak-class capability with a friendlier setup experience.
ZITADEL
A cloud-native, API-first identity platform with a generous self-hosted core.
ZITADEL is a modern identity and access management platform built API-first for cloud-native and multi-tenant SaaS use cases. It supports OIDC, SAML, passkeys/WebAuthn, and fine-grained actions/hooks for customizing the auth flow in code, and offers both a managed cloud and a self-hostable core.
Side by side
| authentik | ZITADEL | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 85 | 82 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT (core); authentik/enterprise/ subdirectory carries its own separate license for paid enterprise features | AGPL-3.0 |
| Pricing | 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. | 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. |
authentik edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
authentik
Strengths
- +Genuinely MIT-licensed for the core product — no AGPL copyleft concerns for embedding or forking
- +Visual flow builder makes multi-step login/enrollment/recovery customization far more approachable than editing raw protocol config
- +Good out-of-box support for LDAP and SCIM alongside OIDC/SAML, useful for bridging older enterprise directories
- +Active, fast-moving project with frequent releases
Trade-offs
- −The enterprise/ directory ships under authentik's own separate license, not MIT — some advanced features are gated behind the paid tier even when self-hosting the core
- −Younger and smaller community than Keycloak, so fewer third-party guides and Stack Overflow answers exist for edge cases
- −Flow builder flexibility means misconfiguration is possible; production hardening still requires real identity-ops knowledge
ZITADEL
Strengths
- +Strong native support for passkeys/WebAuthn and modern passwordless flows out of the box
- +API-first design and 'Actions' hooks make custom auth logic (e.g. custom claims, external calls during login) straightforward without forking the codebase
- +Built for multi-tenancy (organizations/projects) from the ground up, closer to Auth0's B2B model than most self-hosted options
- +Active development with frequent releases and a responsive open-source community
Trade-offs
- −AGPL-3.0 requires that any modified version offered as a network service also be released under AGPL — a real legal consideration for SaaS companies embedding it
- −Younger project than Keycloak with a smaller track record at very large scale
- −Some advanced features are positioned toward the paid ZITADEL Cloud tier rather than the self-hosted core
Facts verified 2026-07-14. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.