authentik (self-hosted)
Open-source identity provider for SSO (OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, proxy). Self-hosted only, with an optional per-user Enterprise license.
Teams that need more than OIDC and SAML, such as LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, Kerberos or proxy auth, get all of it in the free open-source edition, provided they run it themselves since there is no managed cloud. Costs are compute plus Postgres, from 2 vCPU / 2-4 GB for a startup to a few workers for a 500k-MAU consumer app. The optional Enterprise licence is $5 per internal user and $0.02 per external user per month, billed annually, or about $20 per 1k external MAU.
- Headquarters
- 🇺🇸 United States
- Parent jurisdiction
- 🇺🇸 United States
- EU self-serve plan
- Available; check eligible plans and regions
- GDPR DPA
- No / not documented
- Billing
- self-hosted
- Free tier
- Open-source edition is free with no user limits.
- Open source
- Yes · self-hostable
- Website
- goauthentik.io
- Source last checked
- 2026-10-06
- Pricing evidence
- Operating cost not estimated
Pricing
Operating cost not estimated · servers, licenses and engineering time are yours. See notes for software editions and license terms.
Self-hosted: budget for infrastructure and maintenance. There is no managed cloud. The open-source edition covers OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, Kerberos and proxy auth for B2B and B2C. Rough sizing: 2 vCPU / 2-4 GB plus Postgres for a startup, and a few 2-4 vCPU workers with a sized Postgres for a 500k-MAU consumer app. Optional Enterprise license: $5 per internal user per month and $0.02 per external user per month (billed annually), which works out to about $20 per 1k external MAU. Enterprise Plus starts at $20k/year. Authentik Security Inc. is a US company.
Managed alternatives
At 50K monthly active users, no enterprise SSO connections. Adjust usage and requirements.
authentik has no bill to estimate: you pay for the servers, storage and time to run it. Clerk is free at this usage, so running authentik yourself only makes sense for control or features, not cost.
- Clerk: $0/yr estimatedPublished rates
- Firebase Authentication / Google Identity Platform: $0/yr estimatedPublished rates
- Logto: $0/yr estimatedModeled ratesAssumes one access token per MAU per month; frequent token issuance increases cost. Paid feature add-ons are excluded.
- Supabase Auth: $0/yr estimatedPublished rates
- WorkOS: $0/yr estimatedPublished rates
No cheaper managed estimate matches your filters. Adjust your usage or compare with your actual contract bill.
The price difference leaves out migration costs, operating costs and any features you’d need to replace.
Self-hosted options
Operating cost is not estimated. These options are not counted as savings against managed services.
Other authentication comparisons
- Auth0 vs Clerk
- Auth0 vs Amazon Cognito
- Clerk vs Supabase Auth
- Auth0 vs WorkOS
- Auth0 vs Keycloak (self-hosted)
Found a wrong rate or plan restriction? Report a correction with a current source.