authentik
A modern, self-hostable identity provider with a flexible visual flow builder.
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sovereigntyauthentik 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.
OPEN SOURCEMIT (core); authentik/enterprise/ subdirectory carries its own separate license for paid enterprise featuresSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST
LicenseMIT (core); authentik/enterprise/ subdirectory carries its own separate license for paid enterprise features
PricingFree / 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.
Open sourceYes
Self-hostableYes
Local-first dataYes
What it does well
- +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
Where it falls short
- −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
authentik as an alternative to
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authentik head-to-head
Straight comparisons against the tools people weigh it against.