Aegis Authenticator
Hacker ApprovedThe most recommended of 5 authenticator apps
Free open-source authenticator app for two-factor codes, with encrypted backups and exports that people prefer over Google Authenticator.
Free open-source authenticator app for two-factor codes, with encrypted backups and exports that people prefer over Google Authenticator.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 28
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 97%
Recommended in 10 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 28 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 28 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 10 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Encrypted backup and export of 2FA secrets
“the encrypted backup alone makes it worth it over Google Authenticator”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “GitHub now requiring 2FA for all contributors,what authenticator apps you using?” “I can backup my Aegis keys, I can't backup an app, or a hw passkey.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Passkeys are not a trap” “Some apps such as Aegis allow exporting the MFA secrets.”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “OEMpocalypse: Unprivileged Android app to root on Samsung, Xiaomi, others” - Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address”
Open-source alternative to Google Authenticator
“the encrypted backup alone makes it worth it over Google Authenticator”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “GitHub now requiring 2FA for all contributors,what authenticator apps you using?” “recreate your 2FA codes in an opensource app like Aegis or Stratum”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “OEMpocalypse: Unprivileged Android app to root on Samsung, Xiaomi, others” Works as well as other TOTP apps
“any TOTP app (FreeOTP+, Aegis...) works just fine”
Comment from 28 May 2026 in “What Apple and Google are doing to your push notifications” “FreeOTP+, Aegis etc will do just as well.”
Comment from 20 Jul 2026 in “How proprietary formats have become Microsoft’s main tool for lock-in” Named as a top pick
“Aegis was on the top of the list”
Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “GitHub now requiring 2FA for all contributors,what authenticator apps you using?” “Stick with password + AEGIS app”
Comment from 13 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: What Has Happened to Authentication?”
Other authenticator apps people recommend
The four most recommended other authenticator apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aegis AuthenticatorThis page | 28 | 1 | 97% | 10 | — | Approved |
| Ente Auth | 22 | 4 | 85% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Microsoft Authenticator | 13 | 51 | 20% | 7 | — | — |
| Google Authenticator | 9 | 9 | 50% | 7 | — | — |
| Authy | 6 | 15 | 29% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
24 of the 33 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“a hardware based AI firewall designed to redact PII and sensitive data from everyday AI usage”
“I can backup my Aegis keys, I can't backup an app, or a hw passkey.”
“blocks explicit commands blocked on your pc from AI to run them”
“stays in your environment independent of AI and its a python module that blocks AI from using unauthorized commands”
“recreate your 2FA codes in an opensource app like Aegis or Stratum”
“Some apps such as Aegis allow exporting the MFA secrets.”
“Stick with password + AEGIS app”
“FreeOTP+, Aegis etc will do just as well.”
“You have new projects that try to add good practices in the prompt [0] or audit your code once in a while [1] but it's not enough.”
“any TOTP app (FreeOTP+, Aegis...) works just fine”
“it's good to split your points of failure”
“Rust-based sovereign nodes don't need a data center to scale.”
“So I built a monkey-patching layer that intercepts LLM calls and runs them through guardrails”
“aegis-ai supports both : )”
“Efficiency over hardware works.”
“the encrypted backup alone makes it worth it over Google Authenticator”
“actively maintained that doesn't rely on cloud sync”
“Aegis was on the top of the list”
“looks like Aegis is doing some validation that won't accept them”
“the transpiler handles the client calls, audit events, and capability checks automatically”
“The result: 85ns logic-level precision by bypassing OS context switching and utilizing zero-copy abstractions.”
“Early days but the bones are solid.”
“Local-first + no data collection is exactly how this should be built.”
“Aegis for Android lets you do encrypted exports.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.