Casbin vs OpenFGA
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
Casbin vs OpenFGA: which should you choose?
Short answer
Casbin vs OpenFGA 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
- Casbin: Backend teams that want to embed a fast, model-driven RBAC/ABAC engine directly inside their own services in Go, Java, Node.js, Python, .NET, PHP or Rust without running a separate authorization server. · OpenFGA: Product engineering teams building multi-tenant SaaS with document-sharing, folder-hierarchy or org/team permission models who want a self-hostable Zanzibar-style engine with a vendor-neutral foundation home.
- 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
- CasbinOpenFGAIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Backend teams that want to embed a fast, model-driven RBAC/ABAC engine directly inside their own services in Go, Java, Node.js, Python, .NET, PHP or Rust without running a separate authorization server. | Product engineering teams building multi-tenant SaaS with document-sharing, folder-hierarchy or org/team permission models who want a self-hostable Zanzibar-style engine with a vendor-neutral foundation home. |
| Short description | Casbin is an Apache 2.0 open-source authorization library, embedded in-process, that evaluates ACL, RBAC, ABAC and other models defined in a model.conf file against policy rules loaded from CSV or a database adapter. It entered the Apache Incubator in February 2026. | OpenFGA is an Apache 2.0 authorization engine, inspired by Google's Zanzibar paper, that stores relationship tuples and answers permission checks via gRPC/HTTP APIs. Originally built by Auth0/Okta, it is now a CNCF Incubating project with a hosted Auth0 FGA option. |
| Company size | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise |
| Deployment | self_hosted | self_hosted, saas |
| Source | open source | open source |
| Pricing model | free (open source) | free (open source); enterprise quote for hosted Auth0 FGA |
| Integrations | Go, Java, Node.js, Python, .NET, PHP, Rust, C++ | Go, Node.js, JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, gRPC, REST |
| Categories | Authorization | Authorization |
| Claimed profile |
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