Keycloak vs OAuth2: What are the differences?
Keycloak and OAuth2 are authentication and authorization frameworks used in web applications. While both provide similar functionalities, there are key differences between the two.
-
Standard vs. Implementation: OAuth2 is an open standard protocol for authorization, while Keycloak is an open source implementation of the OAuth2 protocol. This means that OAuth2 defines the overall framework and Keycloak provides a specific implementation of it.
-
Single Sign-On (SSO): Keycloak is designed to support Single Sign-On (SSO) out of the box. It allows users to authenticate once and then access multiple applications without needing to re-authenticate. OAuth2, on the other hand, does not inherently support SSO and requires additional implementation to achieve it.
-
User Management: Keycloak provides built-in user management features, allowing administrators to create and manage users, roles, and permissions. OAuth2, being a protocol, does not provide user management functionalities by default and requires integration with an external identity provider or user management system.
-
Token Validation: Keycloak has built-in token validation capabilities, which means it can validate access tokens issued by itself or any other OAuth2 authorization server. While OAuth2 does provide a standard mechanism for token validation, the implementation is left to individual authorization servers.
-
Security Ecosystem: Keycloak provides additional security features like two-factor authentication, social login integration, and support for various federation protocols (such as SAML and OpenID Connect). OAuth2, being a standard, does not provide these security features by default and relies on external components for their implementation.
-
Ease of Use: Keycloak aims to provide a fully-featured authentication and authorization solution with a user-friendly interface for configuration and administration. OAuth2, being a protocol, requires additional effort and expertise to set up and configure, as it only defines the overall flow and mechanisms.
In summary, Keycloak is an open-source implementation of the OAuth2 protocol that provides additional features such as SSO, user management, and enhanced security. OAuth2, as a standard, defines the framework for authorization but requires additional components and configuration to achieve the same level of functionality.
