# Zitadel

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/zitadel/

7 people recommended Zitadel in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 6 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Open-source identity server that can be used hosted or self-hosted, with multitenant management and OIDC support. Most common caveat: still complicated to deploy something small.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to deploy and run (2 comments in the sample): "I was able to use it pretty easily with the built in service and postgres service" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45917143)) "You can easy deploy Zitadel to Hetzner though" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620416))
- Preferred over Keycloak (2 comments in the sample): "only takes a fraction of what Keycloak needs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48484694)) "Zitadel has been far better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916610))

## What people warn about

- Complicated for small deployments (1 comment in the sample): "still sort of painfully complicated if you want to deploy something small and simple" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49808309))
- Nix build not reproducible (1 comment in the sample): "couldn't because for whatever reason it's Nix build isn't reproduceable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45916814))
- Only runs on Google Cloud (1 comment in the sample): "it only operates on Gcloud. Makes it not European" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47620076))

## Other identity providers people recommend

- [Keycloak](https://hackerapproved.com/p/keycloak/): 29 recommend, 14 mixed, 19 criticize
- [Authentik](https://hackerapproved.com/p/authentik/): 13 recommend, 0 mixed, 0 criticize
- [FreeIPA](https://hackerapproved.com/p/freeipa/): 11 recommend, 2 mixed, 6 criticize
- [Ory](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ory/): 8 recommend, 0 mixed, 6 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Zitadel", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zitadel/ (7 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.