Ory Kratos
Headless identity and user management API with login, registration and account recovery.
- Identity & SSO
- Go
- Apache-2.0
- Docker
- Actively maintained
GitHub stats
- GitHub stars
- 13,909
- Forks
- 1,189
- Open issues
- 150
- Commits, last 12 months
- 408
- Last commit
- Jul 29, 2026
- Latest release
- v26.2.0Mar 20, 2026
- Created
- May 29, 2018
Data from the GitHub API, refreshed daily.
About Ory Kratos
Headless identity and user management API with login, registration and account recovery. Ory Kratos is open source under the Apache-2.0 license and written mainly in Go, so you can read the code, run it on your own hardware and keep full control of your data.
The project has 13,909 stars and 1,189 forks on GitHub, with 408 commits over the last year. It ships a Docker image, which makes it a good fit for a small VPS or a home server running Docker Compose.
Topics
- identity
- identity-management
- user-management
- users
- user
- login
- registration
- profile-management
- user-profiles
- user-profile
Open-source alternative to
Ory Kratos can replace these commercial products. Compare every option on each page.
Repository preview
Similar apps
More apps like Ory Kratos
Other projects in Identity & SSO, ranked by GitHub stars.
Keycloak
keycloak/keycloak
Open-source identity and access management with SSO, OIDC, SAML and user federation.
Identity & SSOJavaDockerAuthelia
authelia/authelia
Single sign-on and two-factor authentication portal for protecting web apps behind a reverse proxy.
Identity & SSOGoDockerauthentik
goauthentik/authentik
Flexible identity provider and SSO platform with OAuth2, SAML, LDAP and proxy outposts.
Identity & SSOPythonDockerSuperTokens
supertokens/supertokens-core
Open-source authentication with login, sessions and social sign-in for your own app.
Identity & SSOJavaDockerZITADEL
zitadel/zitadel
Identity infrastructure with SSO, passkeys, multi-tenancy and audit trails, built in Go.
Identity & SSOGoDockerLogto
logto-io/logto
Modern auth infrastructure with OIDC, SSO and multi-tenant support for SaaS and apps.
Identity & SSOTypeScriptDocker
What is Ory Kratos?
Ory Kratos is a free, open-source app you can host on your own server, listed in our Identity & SSO category. Headless identity and user management API with login, registration and account recovery. The source code lives at github.com/ory/kratos, where it has 13,909 stars.
Is Ory Kratos free and open source?
Yes. Ory Kratos is open-source software released under the Apache-2.0 license, so you can self-host it at no cost. You only pay for the server it runs on, and some projects also offer an optional paid cloud plan.
Can I run Ory Kratos with Docker?
Yes. Ory Kratos provides a Docker image, so you can run it on any Linux server with Docker and Docker Compose installed. The project README lists the image name and the environment variables to set.
What are the best alternatives to Ory Kratos?
Popular open-source alternatives to Ory Kratos include Keycloak, Authelia and authentik. Ory Kratos itself is a self-hosted alternative to Auth0.
Is Ory Kratos actively maintained?
The most recent commit to Ory Kratos was on Jul 29, 2026 with 408 commits in the past twelve months. The latest release is v26.2.0, published Mar 20, 2026. Check the open issues on GitHub to gauge how quickly maintainers respond.