AuthZed (SpiceDB) vs Ory
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
AuthZed (SpiceDB) vs Ory: which should you choose?
Short answer
AuthZed (SpiceDB) vs Ory have overlapping use cases in identity and access management. The right pick depends on your company size, deployment model, integrations, and pricing tolerance — compare those attributes side-by-side below.
- Best for
- AuthZed (SpiceDB): Product engineering teams building fine-grained, relationship-based permissions (sharing, hierarchies, multi-tenant B2B) at scale who want Zanzibar semantics without building them. · Ory: Engineering teams that want composable, open source identity and authorization primitives, self-hosted or as SaaS.
- When to choose
- Pick the option whose company-size fit, deployment model, and integrations most closely match your stack.
- When not to choose
- Skip a head-to-head if you haven't shortlisted a category yet — start with the IAM Stack Finder instead.
- Related tools & categories
- AuthZed (SpiceDB)OryIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Product engineering teams building fine-grained, relationship-based permissions (sharing, hierarchies, multi-tenant B2B) at scale who want Zanzibar semantics without building them. | Engineering teams that want composable, open source identity and authorization primitives, self-hosted or as SaaS. |
| Short description | Maker of SpiceDB, the Apache-2.0 "open source permissions database" inspired by Google Zanzibar, offered self-hosted, as usage-priced AuthZed Cloud, as Dedicated cloud, or as a licensed self-hosted enterprise build. | Open source identity, authorization and zero trust stack (Kratos, Hydra, Keto, Oathkeeper) available self-hosted or as Ory Network SaaS. |
| Company size | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise |
| Deployment | saas, self_hosted | saas, self_hosted, hybrid |
| Source | open core | open source |
| Pricing model | usage-based / enterprise | usage_based |
| Integrations | PostgreSQL, CockroachDB, Google Cloud Spanner, MySQL, Kubernetes, gRPC, Go, Node.js | OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, SCIM, Kubernetes |
| Categories | Customer Identity / CIAM, Developer Authentication | |
| Claimed profile |
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