FreeIPA
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 2 of 12 identity providers by recommenders
Free, open source identity management that can manage Linux and Windows clients, with a Red Hat version available. Critics find it complex to configure and maintain.
Free, open source identity management that can manage Linux and Windows clients, with a Red Hat version available. Critics find it complex to configure and maintain.
21 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 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
Alternative to Active Directory-style management
“It does, it's called FreeIPA (or RedHat IdM). The only GPO parts it doesn't do are those that are not related to policy in the IAM sense”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “If you are looking for an out-of-the-box tool that can manage both Linux and Windows clients, Red Hat has FreeIPA.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “Univention Nubus (Keycloak + OpenLDAP) or FreeIPA as alternatives for Entra come to mind.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Danish Gov agency to ditch Microsoft software in push for digital independence” Praised as excellent, working software
“Those are both excellent pieces of software we are lucky to have.”
Comment from 13 Jan 2026 in “Gentoo Linux 2025 Review” “It does, now running. Glad to be able to replace my Samba4 setup”
Comment from 22 Feb 2026 in “Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM” Point-and-click UI, easier to debug
“If you want point-and-click/drool interfaces, use FreeIPA.”
Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France Launches Government Linux Desktop Plan as Windows Exit Begins” “its infinitely easier to debug”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Complex, byzantine design
“The freeipa/sssd/nss/pam/krb/ldap/dns (+keycloak/samba/...) etc stack is just incredibly byzantine”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM” “The byzantine and overly complex nature of FreeIPA is a feature not a bug.”
Comment from 19 Feb 2026 in “Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM” Hard to configure and maintain
“all were more trouble to configure than they were worth”
Comment from 18 Feb 2026 in “Native FreeBSD Kerberos/LDAP with FreeIPA/IDM” “FreeIPA in particular is a beast to maintain”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Danish Gov agency to ditch Microsoft software in push for digital independence”
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 |
| FreeIPAThis page | 14 | 7 | 67% | 4 | — | Approved |
| Authentik | 14 | 0 | 100% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Okta | 11 | 47 | 19% | 7 | — | — |
| Microsoft Entra | 8 | 18 | 31% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“If you want point-and-click/drool interfaces, use FreeIPA.”
“If you are looking for an out-of-the-box tool that can manage both Linux and Windows clients, Red Hat has FreeIPA.”
“It does, it's called FreeIPA (or RedHat IdM). The only GPO parts it doesn't do are those that are not related to policy in the IAM sense”
“it's fairly nifty since you never see the TOFU prompt”
“FreeIPA in particular is a beast to maintain”
“Univention Nubus (Keycloak + OpenLDAP) or FreeIPA as alternatives for Entra come to mind.”
“It does, now running. Glad to be able to replace my Samba4 setup”
“The byzantine and overly complex nature of FreeIPA is a feature not a bug.”
“it wasn't nearly as lightweight or friendly towards automation”
“all were more trouble to configure than they were worth”
“The FreeIPA documentation could be made a bit clearer, so many "obsolete" pages showing in search.”
“its infinitely easier to debug”
“The freeipa/sssd/nss/pam/krb/ldap/dns (+keycloak/samba/...) etc stack is just incredibly byzantine”
“Ansible and FreeIPA can’t hold a candle to Active Directory”
“Those are both excellent pieces of software we are lucky to have.”
“Nearly every one of their paid "enterprise" products has a completely free and open source version.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.