Ory Kratos vs Logto
Both are alternatives to Okta. Here's how they stack up — verified facts, no spin.
Also searched as Logto vs Ory Kratos — same comparison, one verdict.
Ory Kratos
Identity as an API — no UI, no opinions, entirely yours.
Ory takes the opposite approach to everything else here: Kratos handles identity, Hydra handles OAuth2, Keto handles permissions, and none of them ship a login screen. You build the interface; they provide the correctness. For a team that wants authentication fully inside their own product with no vendor's branding or flow, that is exactly right, and Apache-2.0 means no licence surprises. For a team that wanted SSO configured by Friday, it is the wrong tool — you are assembling identity from parts.
Logto
The fastest route from nothing to working sign-in.
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.
Side by side
| Ory Kratos | Logto | |
|---|---|---|
| Sovereignty Score | 92 | 87 |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| Local-first | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MPL-2.0 (open core; paid cloud tier) |
| Pricing | Free and open source. Ory Network is a paid hosted option. | Free and self-hostable. Logto Cloud is paid with a free tier. |
Ory Kratos edges it on the Sovereignty Score, but the right pick depends on the trade-offs below.
Ory Kratos
Strengths
- +Apache-2.0 across the whole stack — no carve-outs
- +API-first: your product owns the entire login experience
- +Cloud-native, stateless, scales horizontally without ceremony
- +Security-first design with a strong track record
Trade-offs
- −No UI at all — you build every screen
- −Composed of several services to deploy and understand
- −Most engineering effort of anything on this page
- −No admin console for non-technical staff
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
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Facts verified 2026-08-03. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.