authentik vs Microsoft Entra ID
authentik and Microsoft Entra ID are both identity and access software. Authentik is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 26k GitHub stars. Microsoft Entra ID is a commercial product from Microsoft.
Which to pick
- 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.
- Pick Microsoft Entra ID when
- Your organisation uses Microsoft 365 and wants identity and SSO without another vendor.
Side by side
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.
Microsoft's cloud directory (formerly Azure AD) for Microsoft 365 sign-in, SSO to other apps, MFA, conditional access and device-aware policies.
Some features are in the paid Enterprise tier, and its flow and stage model takes time to learn.
Conditional access and governance features need P1 or P2 licences, and the admin surface is large.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Cloud service
Python, Django, TypeScript, Go, Rust and PostgreSQL
Azure
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
Closed source, sold by Microsoft
GitHub could not read the license. Check it in the repository before reusing any code.
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.
26k GitHub stars
508 Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Established: started 6 years ago, latest release version/2026.8.5.
Not known
Other comparisons
More identity providers and single sign-on servers
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-06 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.