# Pocket ID 7 Hacker News commenters recommended Pocket ID and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. **Verdict:** Minimal self-hosted identity provider with passkey login, recommended for home labs and as an OIDC front end for self-hosted apps. ## Why people recommend it - Suited to home lab use (4 comments): "if you're looking for something minimal that you can self host, say for a home lab environment, I landed on Pocket ID" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366274)) "Overall, it's perfectly sufficient and lightweight for homelab use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46845548)) "I use it for my home server with LLDAP as the identity provider." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916458)) - Minimal and lightweight for self-hosting (3 comments): "if you're looking for something minimal that you can self host, say for a home lab environment, I landed on Pocket ID" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366274)) "Overall, it's perfectly sufficient and lightweight for homelab use." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46845548)) "a small identity provider for self-hosted apps in the home lab" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50151718)) - Works as SSO for self-hosted apps (3 comments): "Envoy does the oidc flow with pocket-id so I can use passkeys for authN." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49310384)) "a small identity provider for self-hosted apps in the home lab" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50151718)) "especially coupled to a SSO/identity provider like pocketId" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49030766)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [Keycloak](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keycloak.md): 44 recommend - [Authentik](https://hackerapproved.com/p/authentik.md): 14 recommend - [FreeIPA](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freeipa.md): 14 recommend - [Okta](https://hackerapproved.com/p/okta.md): 11 recommend - [Microsoft Entra](https://hackerapproved.com/p/microsoft-entra.md): 8 recommend ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Pocket ID", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pocket-id/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).