Keycloak vs Zitadel
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
Keycloak vs Zitadel: which should you choose?
Short answer
Keycloak vs Zitadel 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
- Keycloak: Organizations that require a fully open source, self-hosted IAM platform with enterprise-grade features and no licensing cost. Strong fit for large enterprises with technical resources to operate it, government agencies with data sovereignty requirements, and universities or research institutions managing complex identity federation. · Zitadel: B2B SaaS teams that want multi-tenant identity with both self-hosted open source and managed cloud options.
- 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
- KeycloakZitadelIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Organizations that require a fully open source, self-hosted IAM platform with enterprise-grade features and no licensing cost. Strong fit for large enterprises with technical resources to operate it, government agencies with data sovereignty requirements, and universities or research institutions managing complex identity federation. | B2B SaaS teams that want multi-tenant identity with both self-hosted open source and managed cloud options. |
| Short description | Keycloak is the most widely deployed open source IAM platform, providing enterprise-grade SSO, MFA, SAML, OIDC, LDAP, and Kerberos support in a self-hosted, Apache 2.0 licensed package maintained by Red Hat. | Open source identity and access platform with built-in multi-tenancy, SSO, MFA and a managed Zitadel Cloud SaaS. |
| Company size | Mid-market, Enterprise, Government / Education | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | saas, self_hosted |
| Source | Open source (Apache 2.0) | open source |
| Pricing model | Free (open source); Red Hat SSO commercial support available separately | tiered |
| Integrations | Active Directory, LDAP, Google, GitHub, Facebook, Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy | OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, SCIM, LDAP |
| Categories | SSO, Customer Identity / CIAM, Developer Authentication, MFA / Passwordless | SSO, Workforce IAM, Developer Authentication |
| Claimed profile |
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