Authentik vs Keycloak vs Authelia: Self-Hosted SSO for a Small Business
Getting 2FA and SSO working across a SaaS stack covers the SaaS side, but once a team is also running several self-hosted apps (a wiki, a chat server, a project tracker), a different question comes up: do you want one login in front of all of them, instead of a separate account per app? Authentik, Keycloak, and Authelia are the three self-hosted identity providers that come up most for exactly this.
Search intent
Someone searching “Authentik vs Keycloak vs Authelia” is already running multiple self-hosted apps and wants a single, self-hosted login/SSO layer in front of them — they’re comparing setup complexity, protocol support, and whether a paid tier is ever necessary, not shopping for a hosted enterprise IdP.
Quick take
- Want the easiest setup with a modern UI and free full-featured self-hosting: Authentik
- Need enterprise-grade protocol depth (SAML, fine-grained realms) and don’t mind more configuration: Keycloak
- Just want a lightweight login portal in front of a reverse proxy, no full identity-provider database to manage: Authelia
The three options
Authentik positions itself as the most approachable of the three, with a modern web UI for configuring providers, flows, and policies rather than editing config files or navigating a dense admin console. It supports OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, and Kerberos, plus a built-in reverse-proxy-style forward-auth mode. The open-source self-hosted edition is completely free with no feature gating on the core identity-provider functionality; a paid Enterprise tier ($5/internal user/month billed annually, plus $0.02/month per external user) adds Google Workspace/Entra ID integrations, enhanced audit logging, mTLS, and ticket-based support, and a custom-quoted Enterprise Plus tier (from $20,000/year) adds SLAs and FIPS compliance — none of which a small business self-hosting for its own team is likely to need, confirmed on goauthentik.io/pricing.
Keycloak is the most established and protocol-complete option, originally a Red Hat project and now a CNCF incubating project (donated in 2023) under the Apache 2.0 license — fully open source with no paid tier, no usage limits, and no feature gating at all. It supports OIDC, SAML 2.0, and LDAP federation with granular “realm” based multi-tenancy, making it the choice most often reached for when SAML support or complex organizational structure matters. The trade-off is setup and ongoing admin complexity: Keycloak’s configuration surface and Java-based footprint are heavier than either Authentik or Authelia, and there’s a real learning curve before a small team’s first working login flow.
Authelia takes the narrowest approach of the three: it’s not a full identity-provider database with user management UI, but a lightweight authentication/authorization portal designed to sit in front of a reverse proxy (Caddy, Nginx, Traefik) and handle login plus 2FA for whatever’s behind it. It’s free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, supports OIDC as a provider and can authenticate against an existing LDAP/file-based user backend, and is the lightest of the three to run — but it assumes you already have (or are willing to set up) a reverse proxy and a separate user directory, rather than managing users inside Authelia itself.
Cost and complexity compared (2026)
| Authentik | Keycloak | Authelia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted cost | Free (Enterprise tier optional, not needed for small teams) | Free — no paid tier exists | Free — no paid tier exists |
| License | Free core; paid Enterprise add-on | Apache 2.0, fully open source | Apache 2.0, fully open source |
| Setup complexity | Low-medium — modern UI | Medium-high — most configuration surface | Low — but requires a reverse proxy + external user source |
| Best protocol fit | OIDC, SAML, LDAP, RADIUS, Kerberos | OIDC, SAML 2.0, LDAP (deepest SAML/realm support) | OIDC (as provider), LDAP/file backend |
All three are free to self-host at the depth a small business actually needs — the real differentiator is setup complexity and how much of an identity-provider “database” you want to manage versus a thin auth portal in front of what you already run.
Which one should you actually pick?
- Want the easiest setup and a UI that doesn’t require reading protocol docs first: Authentik.
- Need SAML support or expect to eventually manage multiple realms/organizations: Keycloak — the setup cost is real, but so is the protocol depth.
- Already have (or are about to set up) a reverse proxy and just want a login wall with 2FA in front of your self-hosted apps: Authelia.
- Haven’t set up a reverse proxy yet: Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager — Authelia in particular assumes one is already in place.
- Handling SaaS-side 2FA/SSO too, not just self-hosted apps: How to Set Up 2FA and SSO Across Small-Business Tools on a Budget covers that side of the stack.
- Storing the credentials these tools protect: Vaultwarden vs Bitwarden vs 1Password is the natural pairing for a team’s actual password vault.
VPS/hosting referral placeholder — swap for a real hosting/VPS affiliate link once a program is confirmed, for readers who’d rather run one of these on a cheap VPS than existing homelab hardware.
Bottom line
All three are free to self-host without hitting a paywall at small-business scale: Authentik for the easiest setup and broadest protocol support out of the box, Keycloak for the deepest SAML/enterprise protocol coverage if you’re willing to put in more configuration time, and Authelia for teams that just want a lightweight login/2FA wall in front of a reverse proxy they already run.