Alternatives to Okta
Okta alternatives worth switching to
The best Okta alternatives are Keycloak (the open-source standard for self-hosted SSO, backed by Red Hat), Authentik (far friendlier than Keycloak to operate), and Zitadel if you want open source with a managed option. Switch if per-user identity pricing has become one of your largest line items — stay on Okta if you need its integration catalogue and compliance certifications, which the open-source options cannot match.
Pricing verified 2026-07-28 · we re-check quarterly ·
how we compare
Why people leave Okta
- Per-user pricing that scales with headcount regardless of usage
- Add-ons priced separately from the base identity product
- Wanting identity infrastructure on your own servers
- Security incidents prompting a re-evaluation of vendor concentration
The alternatives
1 Keycloak open source
Best for: The open-source SSO standard
Pricing: Free and open source. Your cost is hosting — roughly $5–20/month on a small VPS, or nothing on hardware you already own — plus your own time for updates and backups. Backed by Red Hat, which sells a supported build. source
Strengths
- Mature, widely deployed and backed by Red Hat
- Full SAML, OIDC and OAuth2 support with no per-user cost
- Enormous amount of community documentation
Trade-offs
- Operationally heavy — realistically needs a dedicated owner
- Admin interface is dense and unforgiving
- Upgrades between major versions require planning
Verdict: The right answer if you have platform engineers. Identity is the wrong place to discover you are understaffed.
source code ↗ 2 Authentik open source
Best for: Self-hosted SSO without Keycloak's weight
Pricing: Free and open source. Your cost is hosting — roughly $5–20/month on a small VPS, or nothing on hardware you already own — plus your own time for updates and backups. A paid enterprise tier with support is also offered. source
Strengths
- Far more approachable than Keycloak for a small team
- Modern interface and a flexible flow builder
- Covers SAML, OIDC, LDAP and proxy authentication
Trade-offs
- Younger and less battle-tested than Keycloak
- Smaller community
- Still real infrastructure to operate
Verdict: The best balance for small teams self-hosting identity. Start here before Keycloak.
source code ↗ 3 Zitadel open source
Best for: Open source with a managed option
Pricing: An open-source self-hosted edition plus a usage-priced cloud tier with a free plan. Prices change often, so check the vendor's current pricing page before deciding. source
Strengths
- Genuinely open source with a credible managed cloud
- Multi-tenancy built in — useful if you sell software
- Modern API-first design
Trade-offs
- Smaller ecosystem than Keycloak or Okta
- Fewer prebuilt app integrations
- Younger project
Verdict: Good middle ground — self-host now, move to their cloud later, without changing product.
source code ↗ 4 Auth0
Best for: Developer-facing authentication in your own product
Pricing: Free tier plus usage-based paid plans. Prices change often, so check the vendor's current pricing page before deciding. source
Strengths
- Excellent developer experience and documentation
- Fast to implement in a customer-facing application
- Generous free tier for small applications
Trade-offs
- Owned by Okta since 2021, so vendor concentration is unchanged
- Costs rise sharply with monthly active users
- Aimed at customer identity rather than workforce SSO
Verdict: The right tool for authenticating your product's users. Note that leaving Okta for Auth0 does not change who you depend on.
Don't switch if…
- You need Okta's catalogue of prebuilt enterprise app integrations
- Compliance requirements demand certifications the open-source options lack
- Nobody will own self-hosted identity infrastructure
- Your provisioning and deprovisioning workflows are built around it
We say this on every page. A comparison that never recommends staying put is an
advert, not a comparison.
Questions people actually ask
Who are Okta's biggest competitors?
Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) is the largest, particularly for organisations already inside Microsoft 365. Ping Identity and JumpCloud compete commercially, and Keycloak is the dominant open-source alternative.
What are the top SSO providers?
Okta and Microsoft Entra ID lead the workforce identity market, with Google Workspace covering many smaller organisations. For self-hosted SSO, Keycloak is the standard, with Authentik and Zitadel as newer alternatives.
Is Okta a unicorn?
Okta outgrew that label long ago — it went public on the Nasdaq in 2017 and is a publicly traded company, so the private-company "unicorn" term no longer applies.
Why is Okta so popular?
It was early to cloud identity, has the widest catalogue of prebuilt enterprise integrations, and carries the compliance certifications large customers require. That integration breadth is the hardest thing for alternatives to match.
Is there a free alternative to Okta?
Keycloak, Authentik and Zitadel are all open source and free to self-host — you pay only for the server and the time to run it. Given that identity failures lock everyone out of everything, budget properly for that time.