Best Self-Hosted Alternatives to Okta
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Okta is the hosted workforce identity provider: single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and user lifecycle across thousands of apps, billed per user. What sends teams looking elsewhere is per-user pricing that rises with each add-on and handing the keys to every internal app to one vendor. The self-hosted identity servers below speak OIDC and SAML on infrastructure you run.
Okta costs about $72/year and keeps your data on its servers. These researched, open-source alternatives give you the same workflow on hardware you own — here's what each needs to run.
The alternatives
authentikMIT
CategorySSO & IdentityStackPython · Go · TypeScriptMin RAM2048 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty3 / 5
KeycloakApache-2.0
CategorySSO & IdentityStackJava · QuarkusMin RAM1024 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty4 / 5
ZitadelAGPL-3.0
CategorySSO & IdentityStackGoMin RAM2048 MBOfficial imageYesDifficulty4 / 5
What you give up by leaving Okta
Leaving Okta means giving up its pre-built integration catalogue, device and lifecycle management, and a team that carries the pager for your login page. Keycloak is the mature option, with SSO, SAML, OIDC and user federation, backed by Red Hat. authentik offers SAML, OAuth2/OIDC and LDAP with a visual flow-based login builder. ZITADEL is cloud-native with multi-tenancy and passwordless built in. Your identity server becomes a critical dependency: every outage blocks every login, so plan high availability, backups and upgrades.
Where to host itaffiliate disclosure
Kamateratrial any of these on
The entry tier is a free trial — fine for a first look. Size it up (or run the 2 vCPU / 4 GB box the cost figures above assume) once you're keeping it.1 vCPU · 1 GB RAM · 20 GB SSD · $4.00/moDigitalOceanalso works on
From $6/mo · 1 vCPU / 1 GB / 25 GB · US + EU + AsiaPaid link — we earn a commission if you shop through it.
Head-to-head
SSOSep 2026
Authelia
vs
authentik
A tiny forward-auth gate vs. a full identity provider.
Read the verdict →
SSOSep 2026
authentik
vsKeycloak
Modern and self-hoster-friendly vs. the enterprise standard.
Read the verdict →
SSOSep 2026
authentik
vsPocket ID
A full identity platform vs. a passkey-only sign-in box.
Read the verdict →
Common questions
Are these Okta alternatives really free?
The software is open-source and free to run. Your only cost is the server it runs on — often a few dollars a month, less than most SaaS subscriptions.
How much server do I need to self-host one?
Most of these run comfortably on a small VPS — 1–2 GB of RAM is enough for a single-user or small-team setup. Each app's page lists its minimum RAM.
Will I lose features by leaving Okta?
It depends on the app. The alternatives below cover the core workflow; polish and integrations vary, so check each one's stack and difficulty before you commit.