Authentik
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 2 of 12 identity providers by recommenders
Open-source single sign-on server that people self-host with Docker and use for their apps. One critic says Pangolin is a better fit.
Open-source single sign-on server that people self-host with Docker and use for their apps. One critic says Pangolin is a better fit.
14 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 11 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
Easy to self-host with Docker
“some of which are as easy to setup as a simple docker run cmd with an open port”
Comment from 27 Dec 2025 in “Exe.dev/” “It's pretty easy to self host. I have been doing it for a small site for years”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Okta's NextJS-0auth troubles” “You can host authentik with one click in docker. It's super easy to set up”
Comment from 13 Nov 2025 in “Kratos - Cloud native Auth0 open-source alternative (self-hosted)” Single sign-on for own apps
“proxy everything through it and hand out usernames to people I want”
Comment from 12 Jan 2026 in “2026 is the Year of Self-hosting” “It's great. We use it for all of our apps.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Kratos - Cloud native Auth0 open-source alternative (self-hosted)” Feature-rich and customizable with Python
“You guys have a super solid product full of features and a decent founder.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Okta's NextJS-0auth troubles” “it does allow custom python code in a lot of places”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Okta's NextJS-0auth troubles” People are happy with it
“I am aware of Authentik and do like it.”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “I tried building my startup entirely on European infrastructure” “I am pretty happy with the results”
Comment from 1 Aug 2026 in “A Week in Matrix”
Other identity providers people recommend
The four most recommended other identity providers, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keycloak | 44 | 20 | 69% | 12 | — | Approved |
| AuthentikThis page | 14 | 0 | 100% | 11 | — | Approved |
| FreeIPA | 14 | 7 | 67% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Okta | 11 | 47 | 19% | 7 | — | — |
| Microsoft Entra | 8 | 18 | 31% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
21 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Authentik with its embedded proxy is also worth considering.”
“start with an open source solution like Keycloak or authentic and fork it”
“I happily pay for GitLab Enterprise and Authentik Enterprise.”
“I am pretty happy with the results”
“Use a platform like Authentik where the immutable characteristic of your user is a UUID.”
“Pangolin would have been a better direct fit than Authentik.”
“Authentik has been listing Cloudflare as a customer for a while.”
“In a day I can now deploy Caddy, Authentik, Fleet, Headscale, Stalwart”
“I am aware of Authentik and do like it.”
“Authentik would fit very nicely there and eliminate that one large bit that the author says he can't avoid putting on US infra.”
“You can use something like Authentik to pull in LDAP users into a OIDC enabled endpoint.”
“proxy everything through it and hand out usernames to people I want”
“some of which are as easy to setup as a simple docker run cmd with an open port”
“it does allow custom python code in a lot of places”
“You guys have a super solid product full of features and a decent founder.”
“Cloudflare moved to us a couple years back”
“It's pretty easy to self host. I have been doing it for a small site for years”
“It's great. We use it for all of our apps.”
“We switched to Authentik because of this.”
“its licence ensures they are added to the open source product after a set time period”
“You can host authentik with one click in docker. It's super easy to set up”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.