About Authelia
Authelia is an open-source authentication and authorization server that provides single sign-on and multi-factor authentication for web applications. It sits in front of your services, usually alongside a reverse proxy, so users sign in once at a portal and are checked against policies before reaching an app.
Supported factors and backends include TOTP, push notifications, two-factor methods and LDAP, according to its topics, and it is described as OpenID Certified and ready for post-quantum cryptography. It is written in Go and runs well as a small container, with documentation for Docker and Kubernetes deployments. Self-hosters often use it to add a consistent login and second factor to tools that have weak or no authentication of their own.
Authelia is licensed under Apache-2.0. As an authentication component, it is meant to be run on your own infrastructure, and it suits home labs, small organizations and teams wanting a lightweight identity layer without a heavier enterprise identity platform.
Key features
- Single sign-on portal for web apps
- Multi-factor authentication including TOTP
- Push notification verification
- LDAP user backend support
- OpenID Connect support
- Docker and Kubernetes deployment
Good fit for
- →Adding 2FA to self-hosted apps
- →Central login for a homelab
- →Policy-based access in front of internal services
- Tags
- sso
- authentication
- mfa
- 2fa
- security
- ldap
- self-hosted
- go
- identity
Authelia: questions and answers
- What is Authelia used for?
- Authelia is a self-hosted single sign-on and multi-factor authentication portal that protects web applications, certified for OpenID Connect and ready for post-quantum cryptography. It is a good fit for adding 2FA to self-hosted apps, central login for a homelab and policy-based access in front of internal services.
- Is Authelia open source?
- Yes. Authelia is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at authelia/authelia and is written mainly in Go.
- Is Authelia free?
- Yes. Authelia is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Authelia?
- Yes. Authelia can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure; there is no official hosted version.
- What is Authelia an alternative to?
- Authelia is an open-source alternative to OneLogin, JumpCloud, Duo Security and Microsoft Entra ID. Other open-source alternatives to OneLogin include Authentik, Keycloak and WSO2 Identity Server.
- Is Authelia actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Authelia was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v4.39.28, published on 17 September 2026. The project has 29k stars on GitHub.
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