authentik vs Ping Identity
authentik and Ping Identity are both identity and access software. Authentik is open source under a license set out in its repository, with 26k GitHub stars. Ping Identity is a commercial product from Ping Identity.
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 Ping Identity when
- A large enterprise or bank has complex hybrid identity needs, including on-premise federation.
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.
Enterprise identity platform for workforce and customer SSO, MFA, federation and access management, deployable in cloud or on premise.
Some features are in the paid Enterprise tier, and its flow and stage model takes time to learn.
Merged with ForgeRock under Thoma Bravo, so product lines are being consolidated.
Production-ready (both)
Self-hosted server
Cloud service and self-hosted server
Python, Django, TypeScript, Go, Rust and PostgreSQL
Java
Open source, license unclear on GitHub
Closed source, sold by Ping Identity
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
498 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.