Keycloak vs Okta

Overview

Okta

Stacks436

Followers828

Votes66

Keycloak

Stacks780

Followers1.3K

Votes102

Keycloak vs Okta: What are the differences?

Keycloak and Okta are both identity and access management (IAM) solutions that provide features such as single sign-on, user provisioning, and multi-factor authentication. However, there are key differences between these two platforms that differentiate their offerings and capabilities.

Architecture: Keycloak is an open-source IAM solution that can be self-hosted on-premises or in a cloud environment. It offers a flexible and customizable architecture, allowing organizations to tailor the solution to their specific needs. On the other hand, Okta is a cloud-based IAM platform, which means it is hosted by Okta and accessible via the internet. This cloud-native architecture allows for easy deployment and maintenance without the need for hardware or software installations.
Integration and Compatibility: Keycloak, being an open-source platform, provides extensive support for various protocols and standards such as SAML, OpenID Connect, OAuth, and LDAP. It integrates well with other open-source technologies, allowing seamless integration with existing systems. Okta, being a commercial product, also supports these protocols but may offer additional proprietary protocols and services to enhance integration with enterprise applications and systems.
Pricing and Licensing: Keycloak is a free and open-source IAM solution, meaning there are no licensing costs associated with using the platform. It provides the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the software according to an organization's requirements. On the other hand, Okta is a commercially licensed product that offers different pricing plans based on the number of users and features required. This means organizations using Okta may need to budget for licensing costs based on their usage and requirements.
Community Support: Keycloak benefits from being an open-source platform with an active developer community. This ensures regular updates, bug fixes, and a wealth of online resources, forums, and community-driven support. Okta, being a commercial product, provides dedicated customer support as part of the licensing agreement. This dedicated support can be advantageous for organizations that require prompt and specialized assistance in managing their IAM system.
Customization and Extensibility: Keycloak's open-source nature allows organizations to fully customize and extend the platform according to their unique needs. This flexibility enables businesses to adapt the functionality and user experience of Keycloak to align with their specific requirements. Okta, on the other hand, provides a more standardized and consolidated experience, focusing on ease of use and user-friendly interfaces. While Okta offers some customization options, the level of customization may be more limited compared to Keycloak.
Enterprise Features and Ecosystem: Okta is a mature and widely adopted enterprise IAM solution trusted by many large organizations. It offers a range of advanced features and integrations specifically designed for enterprise environments. Okta's ecosystem includes various partner integrations, pre-built connectors, and a marketplace of extension apps that complement the core functionality. Keycloak, being an open-source platform, may have a smaller ecosystem by comparison, but it still provides a solid foundation for implementing basic IAM functionalities in a cost-effective manner.

In summary, Keycloak and Okta are both powerful IAM solutions, but they differ in terms of architecture, pricing, customization, support, and focus on enterprise features.

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Advice on Okta, Keycloak

sindhujasrivastava

Jan 16, 2020

Needs advice

I am working on building a platform in my company that will provide a single sign on to all of the internal products to the customer. To do that we need to build an Authorisation server to comply with the OIDC protocol. Earlier we had built the Auth server using the Spring Security OAuth project but since in Spring Security 5.x it is no longer supported we are planning to get over with it as well. Below are the 2 options that I was considering to replace the Spring Auth Server.

Keycloak
Okta
Auth0 Please advise which one to use.

258k views258k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Okta	Keycloak
Connect all your apps in days, not months, with instant access to thousands of pre-built integrations - even add apps to the network yourself. Integrations are easy to set up, constantly monitored, proactively repaired and handle authentication and provisioning.	It is an Open Source Identity and Access Management For Modern Applications and Services. It adds authentication to applications and secure services with minimum fuss. No need to deal with storing users or authenticating users. It's all available out of the box.
Community Supported Network;Comprehensive App Integrations;Proactive Network Support;Easy App Integration;Find Your Applications;Okta for One Application is Free	-
Statistics
Stacks 436	Stacks 780
Followers 828	Followers 1.3K
Votes 66	Votes 102
Pros & Cons
Pros 14 REST API 9 SAML 5 Easy LDAP integration 5 OIDC OpenID Connect 5 User Provisioning Cons 5 Pricing is too high 1 Okta verify (Multi-factor Authentication)	Pros 33 It's a open source solution 24 Supports multiple identity provider 17 OpenID and SAML support 12 Easy customisation 10 JSON web token Cons 7 Okta 6 Poor client side documentation 5 Lack of Code examples for client side

What are some alternatives to Okta, Keycloak?

Auth0

A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.

Stormpath

Stormpath is an authentication and user management service that helps development teams quickly and securely build web and mobile applications and services.

Devise

Devise is a flexible authentication solution for Rails based on Warden

Firebase Authentication

It provides backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries to authenticate users to your app. It supports authentication using passwords, phone numbers, popular federated identity providers like Google,

Amazon Cognito

You can create unique identities for your users through a number of public login providers (Amazon, Facebook, and Google) and also support unauthenticated guests. You can save app data locally on users’ devices allowing your applications to work even when the devices are offline.

WorkOS

Start selling to enterprise customers with just a few lines of code.

OAuth.io

OAuth is a protocol that aimed to provide a single secure recipe to manage authorizations. It is now used by almost every web application. However, 30+ different implementations coexist. OAuth.io fixes this massive problem by acting as a universal adapter, thanks to a robust API. With OAuth.io integrating OAuth takes minutes instead of hours or days.

OmniAuth

OmniAuth is a Ruby authentication framework aimed to abstract away the difficulties of working with various types of authentication providers. It is meant to be hooked up to just about any system, from social networks to enterprise systems to simple username and password authentication.

ORY Hydra

It is a self-managed server that secures access to your applications and APIs with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. It is OpenID Connect Certified and optimized for latency, high throughput, and low resource consumption.

Kinde

Simple, powerful authentication that you can integrate in minutes. Free your users from passwords with secure and frictionless one click sign up and sign in. Built from the ground up using the best in class security protocols available today.

Related Comparisons

Keycloak vs Okta: What are the differences?

Architecture: Keycloak is an open-source IAM solution that can be self-hosted on-premises or in a cloud environment. It offers a flexible and customizable architecture, allowing organizations to tailor the solution to their specific needs. On the other hand, Okta is a cloud-based IAM platform, which means it is hosted by Okta and accessible via the internet. This cloud-native architecture allows for easy deployment and maintenance without the need for hardware or software installations.
Integration and Compatibility: Keycloak, being an open-source platform, provides extensive support for various protocols and standards such as SAML, OpenID Connect, OAuth, and LDAP. It integrates well with other open-source technologies, allowing seamless integration with existing systems. Okta, being a commercial product, also supports these protocols but may offer additional proprietary protocols and services to enhance integration with enterprise applications and systems.
Pricing and Licensing: Keycloak is a free and open-source IAM solution, meaning there are no licensing costs associated with using the platform. It provides the freedom to use, modify, and distribute the software according to an organization's requirements. On the other hand, Okta is a commercially licensed product that offers different pricing plans based on the number of users and features required. This means organizations using Okta may need to budget for licensing costs based on their usage and requirements.
Community Support: Keycloak benefits from being an open-source platform with an active developer community. This ensures regular updates, bug fixes, and a wealth of online resources, forums, and community-driven support. Okta, being a commercial product, provides dedicated customer support as part of the licensing agreement. This dedicated support can be advantageous for organizations that require prompt and specialized assistance in managing their IAM system.
Customization and Extensibility: Keycloak's open-source nature allows organizations to fully customize and extend the platform according to their unique needs. This flexibility enables businesses to adapt the functionality and user experience of Keycloak to align with their specific requirements. Okta, on the other hand, provides a more standardized and consolidated experience, focusing on ease of use and user-friendly interfaces. While Okta offers some customization options, the level of customization may be more limited compared to Keycloak.
Enterprise Features and Ecosystem: Okta is a mature and widely adopted enterprise IAM solution trusted by many large organizations. It offers a range of advanced features and integrations specifically designed for enterprise environments. Okta's ecosystem includes various partner integrations, pre-built connectors, and a marketplace of extension apps that complement the core functionality. Keycloak, being an open-source platform, may have a smaller ecosystem by comparison, but it still provides a solid foundation for implementing basic IAM functionalities in a cost-effective manner.

In summary, Keycloak and Okta are both powerful IAM solutions, but they differ in terms of architecture, pricing, customization, support, and focus on enterprise features.

Keycloak vs Okta

Overview