Open Policy Agent (OPA) vs OpenFGA
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
Open Policy Agent (OPA) vs OpenFGA: which should you choose?
Short answer
Open Policy Agent (OPA) 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
- Open Policy Agent (OPA): Platform and security engineering teams that want one policy-as-code engine spanning application authorization, Kubernetes admission, service-mesh and infrastructure checks, and are prepared to operate it themselves. · 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
- Open Policy Agent (OPA)OpenFGAIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Platform and security engineering teams that want one policy-as-code engine spanning application authorization, Kubernetes admission, service-mesh and infrastructure checks, and are prepared to operate it themselves. | 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 | Open Policy Agent is an Apache 2.0, CNCF Graduated policy engine that evaluates Rego policies for application authorization, Kubernetes admission (Gatekeeper), Envoy/Istio, Terraform and CI/CD. It returns decisions; your services enforce them. | 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 | Kubernetes, Envoy, Istio, Terraform, Kafka, Docker, AWS, Kong | Go, Node.js, JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, gRPC, REST |
| Categories | Authorization | Authorization |
| Claimed profile |
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