About Authorizer
Authorizer is an open-source authentication and authorization server written in Go that you can host yourself. Its pitch is that you bring your own database and stay in control of user data. It supports more than 13 backends, including Postgres, MySQL, SQLite, SQL Server, MariaDB, Cassandra, ScyllaDB, MongoDB, ArangoDB, DynamoDB, and Couchbase. It is released under the Apache-2.0 license.
From one place it offers OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect, social login, multi-factor authentication, magic links, role-based access control, webhooks, and email templates, and it ships with a built-in login page and an admin panel. Version 2 is configured entirely through command-line arguments and does not read .env files or operating system environment variables.
You can run it as a Docker image or micro-service in your own infrastructure, or deploy it quickly on Railway. It suits developers who want a hosted-auth style experience without lock-in and with a choice of database.
Key features
- OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect provider
- Social login and magic links
- Multi-factor authentication
- Role-based access control
- Built-in login page and admin panel
- 13+ database backends
- Webhooks and email templates
Good fit for
- →Adding auth to an app without vendor lock-in
- →Centralized login for several services
- Tags
- authentication
- authorization
- oauth2
- oidc
- mfa
- rbac
- self-hosted
- go
Authorizer: questions and answers
- What is Authorizer used for?
- Authorizer is a self-hosted authentication and authorization server with OAuth2/OIDC, social login, MFA, magic links, and RBAC that works with more than a dozen database backends. It is a good fit for adding auth to an app without vendor lock-in and centralized login for several services.
- Is Authorizer open source?
- Yes. Authorizer is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at authorizerdev/authorizer and is written mainly in Go.
- Is Authorizer free?
- Yes. Authorizer is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
- Can I self-host Authorizer?
- Yes. Authorizer can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
- What is Authorizer an alternative to?
- Authorizer is an open-source alternative to Auth0, Amazon Cognito, Stytch and Clerk. Other open-source alternatives to Auth0 include SuperTokens, Logto and ZITADEL.
- Is Authorizer actively maintained?
- Yes. The most recent commit to Authorizer was on 29 September 2026, and the latest release is 2.4.1, published on 3 September 2026. The project has 2.1k stars on GitHub.
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