authentik vs Gluu Flex
authentik
goauthentik.ioGluu Flex
gluu.orgSide by side
| Figure | authentik | Gluu Flex |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | — |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 3 |
| Spec score · Authentication Software | 8.6 (#4) | 7.5 (#22) |
| Spec score · OAuth Server Software | 8.5 (#9) | 7.4 (#28) |
| Authentication | It supports multi-factor authentication with TOTP and WebAuthn/passkeys, including hardware or software authenticators. | Listed use cases include OpenID and SAML federation, single sign-on, mobile authentication, multi-factor and passwordless authentication, and device-flow authentication. |
| Headquarters | Pennsylvania, United States | Austin, Texas, USA |
| Intended users | The Open Source plan is described as being for homelab users and simple use cases, while Enterprise Plus is described as being for custom contracts and expert support. | Gluu describes Flex for organizations that need to self-host authentication and authorization, including businesses with data sovereignty or security requirements. |
| Support | The open-source plan lists community Discord and no support; paid support is offered as part of enterprise software subscriptions, with ticket support for Enterprise subscriptions over $1k. | The Gluu Flex contract includes guaranteed response times and consultative support through the support portal. |
Plans
authentik
- FreeFree
- Enterprise$5 a month
- Open SourceFree
- Enterprise Plus$20,000 a year
Gluu Flex
- Flex Licence — 100 MAUPriced on request
- Flex Licence — 400 MAUPriced on request
- Flex Licence — 1,600 MAUPriced on request
In their own words
authentik
authentik is an open-source, self-hostable identity and access management product for workforce single sign-on, customer identity, zero-trust security, legacy application integration and API security. It supports OAuth2/OpenID Connect, SAML2, LDAP, RADIUS, SCIM and Kerberos, as well as WS-Federation. MFA options include TOTP, WebAuthn/passkeys, email, SMS, Duo and static tokens. Access policies can consider factors such as user attributes, time and location. Security features include audit logging, session binding, GeoIP and impossible-travel detection, and client certificate authentication with mTLS. It can run on customer infrastructure, including Docker and Kubernetes; the pricing FAQ says there is no hosted version currently. The authentik Agent integrates with Windows, macOS and Linux for local device login and CLI authentication. A free open-source plan includes community Discord support but no product support. Enterprise costs $5 a month, billed annually, at $5 per user per month; external users are $0.02 per month and service accounts have no cost.