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Open source alternatives to AWS Cognito[011]

AWS Cognito provides managed user pools, federated identity and OAuth token issuance for signing users into AWS-hosted applications. Below are 11 self-hostable open source alternatives, ranked by GitHub popularity.

// AUTH & SECURITY№ 001
Keycloak

Keycloak

JAVA

Open Source Identity and Access Management For Modern Applications and Services

★ STARS

34.3k

⑂ FORKS

8.3k

OPEN PROJECT→
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Better Auth

Better Auth

TYPESCRIPT

The authentication framework for TypeScript

★ STARS

28.2k

⑂ FORKS

2.5k

OPEN PROJECT→
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Authentik

Authentik

PYTHON

The authentication glue you need

★ STARS

21.4k

⑂ FORKS

1.6k

OPEN PROJECT→
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Ory Hydra

Ory Hydra

GO

OpenID Certified™ OpenID Connect and OAuth Provider written in Go

★ STARS

17.1k

⑂ FORKS

1.5k

OPEN PROJECT→
// DEVELOPER TOOLS№ 005
SuperTokens

SuperTokens

JAVA

Open source alternative to Auth0 / AWS Cognito / Firebase Auth

★ STARS

15.0k

⑂ FORKS

662

OPEN PROJECT→
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Zitadel

Zitadel

GO

Identity infrastructure, simplified for you.

★ STARS

13.7k

⑂ FORKS

1.1k

OPEN PROJECT→
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Logto

Logto

TYPESCRIPT

Authentication and authorization infrastructure for SaaS and AI apps, built on OIDC and OAuth 2.1 with multi-tenancy, SSO, and RBAC.

★ STARS

12.0k

⑂ FORKS

793

OPEN PROJECT→
// AUTH & SECURITY№ 008
Hanko

Hanko

GO

Authentication and user management for the passkey era

★ STARS

8.9k

⑂ FORKS

1.0k

OPEN PROJECT→
// AUTH & SECURITY№ 009
Permify

Permify

GO

An open-source authorization as a service inspired by Google Zanzibar, designed to build and manage fine-grained and scalable authorization systems for any application. — Permify is now part of FusionAuth

★ STARS

5.9k

⑂ FORKS

310

OPEN PROJECT→
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Cerbos

Cerbos

GO

Cerbos is the open core, language-agnostic, scalable authorization solution that makes user permissions and authorization simple to implement and manage by writing context-aware access control policies for your application resources.

★ STARS

4.4k

⑂ FORKS

181

OPEN PROJECT→
// AUTH & SECURITY№ 011
Authgear

Authgear

GO

Open source Auth0/Clerk/Firebase alternative. Passkeys, SSO, MFA, passwordless, biometric login. Self-hosted or cloud. Enterprise-ready for SaaS & mobile apps

★ STARS

1.7k

⑂ FORKS

112

OPEN PROJECT→

// EDITOR'S TAKE

SuperTokens aims squarely at this migration and is the least painful landing spot if you mostly used Cognito user pools with a hosted login page. Keycloak is the stronger choice once you need SAML federation, group-based access and long-term stability, while Zitadel sits between them with per-tenant isolation and an API that will feel familiar after Cognito's.

// FREQUENTLY ASKED

What is the best open source AWS Cognito alternative?

Keycloak is the most popular open source AWS Cognito alternative by GitHub stars (34,264 stars). The other 10 options are ranked above.

Are these AWS Cognito alternatives self-hostable?

Yes — every project listed here is open source and runs on your own infrastructure. Click into a project to see its license, stars, language, and current health status.

Are they free?

All projects shown are free and open source. Check each project's license page for the terms — most are MIT, Apache 2.0, or AGPL.

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