Auth0 vs Keycloak

Auth0 and Keycloak are both developer identity / ciam solutions. Auth0 developer-first identity platform for customer authentication and CIAM, while Keycloak open-source IAM platform with SSO, identity brokering, and fine-grained authorization. The best choice depends on your organization's size, technical requirements, and budget.

Updated Feb 2026
How we compare:This comparison is based on official documentation, public pricing, community discussions, and aggregated user feedback, not hands-on testing by our team. We organize what real users and practitioners are saying across the web.

The Bottom Line

Choose Auth0 if best developer experience in the identity industry with comprehensive SDKs is your priority and development teams building customer-facing applications that need flexible, API-first authentication with extensive SDK support and customizable login experiences. Choose Keycloak if completely free — no licensing costs regardless of user count matters most and organizations with engineering expertise that want full control over their identity platform, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate IAM licensing costs.

Choose Auth0 if:

  • You value best developer experience in the identity industry with comprehensive SDKs
  • You value generous free tier — 25,000 monthly active users at no cost
  • You value actions extensibility enables custom logic without managing infrastructure
  • You want to avoid requires significant engineering effort to deploy, scale, and maintain
  • You want to avoid no managed cloud service — you own all infrastructure operations

Choose Keycloak if:

  • You value completely free — no licensing costs regardless of user count
  • You value full source code access enables deep customization
  • You value self-hosted deployment gives complete data sovereignty
  • You want to avoid pricing escalates rapidly as monthly active users grow beyond free tier
  • You want to avoid now owned by Okta — long-term product independence uncertain

Feature Comparison

FeatureAuth0Keycloak
PricingFree (up to 25,000 MAU) / Essential from $35/month / Professional from $240/month / Enterprise customFree (open source) / Red Hat SSO for enterprise support
Pricing ModelMonthly active user (MAU) based pricingFree open source with optional commercial support
Open SourceNoYes
DeploymentCloudSelf-Hosted
Best ForDevelopment teams building customer-facing applications that need flexible, API-first authentication with extensive SDK support and customizable login experiencesOrganizations with engineering expertise that want full control over their identity platform, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate IAM licensing costs
Universal Login with customizable aut...SupportedNot available
Passwordless authentication (email, S...SupportedNot available
Actions — serverless extensibility fo...SupportedNot available

Sources

Related

Auth0 AlternativesKeycloak AlternativesAuth0 OverviewKeycloak Overview