Self-Hosted Alternatives to Auth0
Why Replace Auth0?
Cost. Auth0’s free tier allows 25,000 monthly active users with limited features, but the moment you need custom domains, MFA policies, or RBAC, pricing jumps to $240+/month (Essentials plan). The Professional plan starts at $1,000+/month. Self-hosted identity providers handle unlimited users for the cost of a VPS.
Okta acquisition concerns. Auth0 was acquired by Okta in 2021. Okta has had multiple security incidents (2022, 2023). When your auth provider’s parent company gets breached, every customer is at risk.
Vendor lock-in. Auth0’s SDKs, Actions, Rules, and Hooks create deep integration coupling. Migrating away is painful by design. Self-hosted solutions use standard protocols (OIDC, SAML) with no proprietary lock-in.
Data sovereignty. Auth0 stores user data in their multi-tenant cloud. For GDPR compliance or regulated industries, self-hosting gives you complete control over where identity data lives.
Best Alternatives
Authentik — Closest to Auth0’s Developer Experience
Authentik is the most Auth0-like self-hosted option. It has a visual flow designer (similar to Auth0 Actions), OIDC and SAML support, social login providers, user enrollment flows, and a modern admin UI. Developers who liked Auth0’s workflow customization will feel most at home with Authentik.
Replaces these Auth0 features: Universal Login, Social Connections, custom flows (via flow designer), OIDC/SAML, MFA, user management, SCIM.
Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Authentik
Keycloak — Most Feature-Complete Replacement
Keycloak covers the broadest set of Auth0 features. Maintained by Red Hat, it supports OIDC, SAML 2.0, LDAP/AD federation, social login, fine-grained authorization (UMA), client scopes, service accounts, and custom authentication flows. It’s the enterprise standard for self-hosted identity.
Replaces these Auth0 features: Everything Authentik does, plus mature SAML, UMA authorization, LDAP federation, and the broadest protocol support.
Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Keycloak
Authelia — Simplest SSO Layer
Authelia is the lightweight option. It’s not a full identity provider — it’s a forward-auth server that adds SSO and 2FA to services behind a reverse proxy. It won’t replace Auth0’s developer features, but it handles the most common need: securing web applications with a login gate. Uses 50 MB of RAM.
Replaces these Auth0 features: Basic SSO, MFA (TOTP, WebAuthn), access policies. Does not replace: SAML, social login, user management, custom flows.
Read our full guide: How to Self-Host Authelia
Migration Guide
From Auth0 to Authentik/Keycloak
- Export users: Use Auth0’s Management API (
GET /api/v2/users) to export your user directory. Auth0 doesn’t export password hashes for security reasons — users will need to reset passwords. - Deploy your chosen IdP (Authentik guide or Keycloak guide)
- Recreate social connections: Configure the same OAuth providers (Google, GitHub, etc.) in your new IdP using the same client IDs from each provider’s developer console
- Recreate applications: For each Auth0 application:
- Create an OIDC client/provider in your new IdP
- Set the same callback URLs
- Update your application code to use the new issuer URL and client credentials
- Migrate custom logic: Auth0 Actions/Rules/Hooks need to be recreated as Authentik flows or Keycloak authentication flows
- Test: Run both systems in parallel during migration. Use feature flags to gradually switch users.
- Handle password reset: Since password hashes can’t be exported, use a “force password reset on first login” policy
Cost Comparison
| Auth0 Free | Auth0 Essentials | Auth0 Professional | Authentik | Keycloak | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $0 | $240/mo | $1,000+/mo | $0 | $0 |
| MAU limit | 25,000 | 500-100,000 | Custom | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Custom domains | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Social connections | 2 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| MFA | Basic | Adaptive | Adaptive | TOTP, WebAuthn | TOTP, WebAuthn |
| RBAC | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (advanced) |
| Infrastructure | Managed | Managed | Managed | ~$10/mo VPS | ~$10/mo VPS |
For any production deployment beyond the free tier, self-hosting saves $2,880+/year minimum.
What You Give Up
- Managed infrastructure. Auth0 handles scaling, uptime, and patches. Self-hosted means you own availability.
- Auth0 SDKs. Auth0’s language-specific SDKs simplify integration. Self-hosted uses standard OIDC libraries (which are well-documented and widely available).
- Adaptive MFA. Auth0’s device fingerprinting, impossible travel detection, and risk-based auth don’t have direct self-hosted equivalents.
- Breached password detection. Auth0 checks credentials against known breach databases. Self-hosted IdPs don’t offer this natively (you’d need to integrate with Have I Been Pwned).
- Actions/Hooks marketplace. Auth0’s extensibility marketplace has pre-built integrations. Self-hosted flows require more manual work.
FAQ
I use Auth0 for my SaaS product. Can I self-host instead?
Yes, but evaluate carefully. For a SaaS with thousands of users across multiple tenants, Keycloak’s multi-realm architecture maps well to multi-tenancy. Authentik’s tenant/brand feature also works. But you take on uptime responsibility for a critical service — your customers can’t log in if your IdP goes down.
Will standard OIDC libraries work with self-hosted IdPs?
Yes. Auth0’s OIDC implementation is standards-compliant, and so are Keycloak and Authentik. Libraries like passport-openidconnect (Node.js), authlib (Python), or spring-security-oauth2 (Java) work with any OIDC provider. You just change the issuer URL and client credentials.
Which is easier to set up: Authentik or Keycloak?
Authentik has a gentler learning curve for developers familiar with Auth0’s style. Keycloak has more features but a steeper initial setup. See our Authentik vs Keycloak comparison.
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