What is Keycloak used for?

Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management server that adds single sign-on, user management and authorization to applications. It is a good fit for adding SSO across internal applications, securing APIs and microservices with tokens, and replacing a hand-built login system.

Is Keycloak open source?

Yes. Keycloak is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at keycloak/keycloak and is written mainly in Java.

Yes. Keycloak is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Keycloak?

Yes. Keycloak can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Keycloak an alternative to?

Keycloak is an open-source alternative to Auth0, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and Ping Identity. Other open-source alternatives to Auth0 include ZITADEL, Authentik and Logto.

Is Keycloak actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Keycloak was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 26.8.0, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.

Keycloak: open-source alternative to Auth0, Okta

About Keycloak

Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management server. It lets application teams add authentication and secure services without building their own login system, since Keycloak handles storing users and authenticating them. The project is written in Java, released under the Apache-2.0 license and governed under the Cloud Native Computing Foundation code of conduct.

Keycloak supports standard protocols such as OpenID Connect and SAML, and offers user federation, strong authentication, user management and fine-grained authorization. You can run it from the downloadable distribution using a start-dev command, or use the official Docker image published on Quay for containers and Kubernetes setups. The project provides documentation, a user mailing list and community channels for help, along with guidance for building and testing from source.

Key features

Single sign-on with OpenID Connect and SAML
User federation with external directories
Strong and multi-step authentication options
Central user and account management
Fine-grained authorization policies
Docker image and standalone distribution

Good fit for

→Adding SSO across internal applications
→Securing APIs and microservices with tokens
→Replacing a hand-built login system

Built with: Java
Tags: identity; sso; oidc; saml; authentication; iam; java; self-hosted

Keycloak: questions and answers

What is Keycloak used for?: Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management server that adds single sign-on, user management and authorization to applications. It is a good fit for adding SSO across internal applications, securing APIs and microservices with tokens, and replacing a hand-built login system.
Is Keycloak open source?: Yes. Keycloak is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at keycloak/keycloak and is written mainly in Java.
Is Keycloak free?: Yes. Keycloak is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Keycloak?: Yes. Keycloak can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Keycloak an alternative to?: Keycloak is an open-source alternative to Auth0, Okta, Microsoft Entra ID and Ping Identity. Other open-source alternatives to Auth0 include ZITADEL, Authentik and Logto.
Is Keycloak actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Keycloak was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 26.8.0, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 37k stars on GitHub.