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It's a split decision.
Choose ZITADEL if you want a hosted identity platform with a free tier, 100 daily active users and a $100/month Pro plan that includes 25,000 monthly active users. Choose authentik if you want to self-host an open-source identity provider and can manage its setup. Its enterprise pricing is billed annually: $5 per workforce user per month or $0.02 per customer user per month. The better fit depends on who runs the infrastructure and how you pay.
01Side by side
| ZITADEL | authentik | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free; Pro is $100/month. | Free; customer accounts start at $0.02/user/month, billed annually. |
| Free plan | Unlimited users and organizations; 100 daily active users. | Open-source plan with no paid support. |
| Best for | Organizations wanting hosted, multi-tenant identity. | Homelabs and teams comfortable self-hosting. |
| Core strength | Hosted login, organizations, roles, and workflow actions. | Self-hosted identity with customizable workflows and policies. |
| Learning curve | Hosted cloud option; ease-of-use score 7/10. | Self-hosting requires setup and maintenance; ease score 6/10. |
| Integrations / data | Three identity providers; EU, US, Switzerland, or Australia residency. | OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, and Kerberos. |
| Team / seat costs | Pro includes 25,000 monthly daily active users for $100. | Workforce: $5/user/month; customer: $0.02/user/month, billed annually. |
| Support | Enterprise includes custom support SLA and technical account manager. | Community Discord free; ticket support for subscriptions over $1,000. |
ZITADEL Choose ZITADEL if
- Choose ZITADEL if you want hosted identity infrastructure.
- Choose ZITADEL if its free tier's 100 daily active users fit.
- Choose ZITADEL if you need an enterprise support SLA.
authentik Choose authentik if
- Choose authentik if you want to self-host your identity provider.
- Choose authentik if you need its listed identity protocols.
- Choose authentik if customer-account pricing suits your user base.
02Pricing compared
ZITADEL has a free plan with unlimited users and organizations, but it caps usage at 100 daily active users and includes three identity providers. Its Pro plan is $100 per month, with 25,000 daily active users per month included, three identity providers, and a custom domain. Enterprise pricing is custom.
authentik’s Open Source plan costs nothing and has no paid support. Its Enterprise plans are billed annually: workforce accounts cost $5 per user per month, while customer accounts cost $0.02 per user per month. Agent and service accounts are included with Enterprise. Enterprise Plus starts at $20,000 annually.
The pricing models solve different problems: ZITADEL charges for a hosted plan, while authentik’s enterprise costs depend on account type and require annual billing. For self-hosting, authentik’s software is free, but the sources do not price the infrastructure or staff time needed to run it.
03Features and depth
Both products cover identity and access management, but their emphasis differs. ZITADEL combines hosted identity infrastructure with authentication, authorization, and identity management. Its listed features include hosted login, social sign-in, MFA, passkeys, role-based permissions, organizations and projects for multi-tenancy, and workflow actions triggered by predefined events. You can also build a custom login interface using its APIs.
authentik is built around self-hosting and flexible integration. Its listed protocols include OAuth2/OIDC, SAML2, SCIM, LDAP, RADIUS, and Kerberos. It also offers customizable workflows and policies, APIs, MFA, and deployment templates for Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker Compose. The Open Source plan lists web-based RDP/SSH access as well.
For a hosted login service with multi-tenant organization features, ZITADEL is the more direct fit. For teams that need to run identity infrastructure themselves or connect applications through a broad protocol set, authentik’s feature list is more aligned. The sources do not establish that either product supports every integration or workflow a particular stack may require.
04Ease of use and learning curve
ZITADEL removes some infrastructure work by offering a hosted plan and hosted login. You still need to configure identity providers, organizations, roles, and login flows, but its free tier gives teams a way to assess the feature set before paying. The review rates its ease of use 7/10.
authentik puts more responsibility on your team: it is self-hosted, and you manage its deployment and operation. Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker Compose templates can help with deployment, but they do not remove the need to maintain the service. Its review rates ease of use 6/10 and notes that setup and maintenance are on the user.
Choose based on who owns operations. If you do not want identity infrastructure to become another service to maintain, ZITADEL’s hosted option is the simpler starting point. If your team can operate self-hosted software, authentik avoids a software charge on its Open Source plan.
Questions people ask
Is ZITADEL or authentik cheaper?
It depends on how you run identity. ZITADEL has a free plan and a $100-per-month Pro plan. authentik’s Open Source plan is free, while Enterprise is billed annually at $5 per workforce user per month or $0.02 per customer user per month. Self-hosting costs are not published.
Can we use authentik without paying?
Yes. authentik’s Open Source plan is listed at no cost and includes protocols such as OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, and Kerberos. It includes community Discord support, but the pricing page says there is no paid support on that plan.
What does ZITADEL’s free plan include?
The pricing information lists unlimited users and organizations, 100 daily active users, three identity providers, and data residency in the EU, US, Switzerland, or Australia. ZITADEL’s Pro plan is $100 per month and includes 25,000 daily active users per month.
Which product should we choose for a self-hosted identity provider?
authentik is explicitly a self-hosted, open-source identity provider, with deployment templates for Kubernetes, Terraform, and Docker Compose. ZITADEL offers a hosted cloud plan. Choose authentik if your team can operate the infrastructure; choose ZITADEL if you prefer a hosted service.