Zitadel vs Keycloak
Side-by-side comparison of identity tools. Sponsored placement is disclosed where applicable.
Quick answer
Zitadel vs Keycloak: which should you choose?
Short answer
Zitadel vs Keycloak 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
- Zitadel: B2B SaaS teams that want multi-tenant identity with both self-hosted open source and managed cloud options. · 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.
- 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
- ZitadelKeycloakIAM Stack FinderBuyer resources
| Attribute | ||
|---|---|---|
| Best for | B2B SaaS teams that want multi-tenant identity with both self-hosted open source and managed cloud options. | 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. |
| Short description | Open source identity and access platform with built-in multi-tenancy, SSO, MFA and a managed Zitadel Cloud SaaS. | 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. |
| Company size | startup, smb, mid_market, enterprise | Mid-market, Enterprise, Government / Education |
| Deployment | saas, self_hosted | Self-hosted |
| Source | open source | Open source (Apache 2.0) |
| Pricing model | tiered | Free (open source); Red Hat SSO commercial support available separately |
| Integrations | OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, SCIM, LDAP | Active Directory, LDAP, Google, GitHub, Facebook, Kubernetes, Istio, Envoy |
| Categories | SSO, Workforce IAM, Developer Authentication | SSO, Customer Identity / CIAM, Developer Authentication, MFA / Passwordless |
| Claimed profile |
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