Authelia vs authentik
Authelia and authentik are both identity and access software. Authelia is open source under Apache-2.0, with 30k GitHub stars. Authentik is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 26k GitHub stars.
Which to pick
- Pick Authelia when
- You self-host several web apps behind Nginx, Traefik or Caddy and want one login with MFA in front of them.
- Pick authentik when
- You want one login for many self-hosted and SaaS apps without paying per user for Okta or Entra ID, and can run it yourself.
Side by side
A single sign-on and two-factor portal that sits in front of web apps through a reverse proxy, and also acts as an OpenID Connect provider.
A self-hosted identity provider for single sign-on over SAML, OAuth2 and OIDC, LDAP and RADIUS, with configurable login flows, MFA and a proxy for apps that have no SSO.
No admin UI for users; they live in a file or LDAP, which suits homelabs and small teams better than large organisations.
Some features are in the paid Enterprise tier, and its flow and stage model takes time to learn.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server (both)
Go, TypeScript, React, PostgreSQL and Redis
Python, Django, TypeScript, Go, Rust and PostgreSQL
Open source, Apache-2.0 (permissive)
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.
GitHub could not read the license. Check it in the repository before reusing any code.
30k GitHub stars
26k GitHub stars
Established: started 10 years ago, latest release v4.39.28.
Established: started 6 years ago, latest release version/2026.8.5.
Other comparisons
More identity providers and single sign-on servers
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from each project's README and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.