Okta Alternatives 2026: 6 Free Options
Okta alternatives: Keycloak, ZITADEL, authentik, Microsoft Entra ID and 2 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•4 min read•Passwords, Privacy & Identity
Verdict:Okta's workforce plans start at $6 per user per month billed annually, with a $1,500 annual contract minimum, and Customer Identity starts at $3,000 a month. There is a 30-day trial, not a free plan for production. Whether you can leave depends on which Okta you use. If you run Okta for your own staff, the realistic swaps are Microsoft Entra ID, which has a free tier on an Azure subscription and costs $7 per user on P1, or a self-hosted identity provider. Keycloak and authentik are both free to self-host and handle SSO and SAML, but you own upgrades, backups and uptime, and you lose Okta's prebuilt app integrations and managed lifecycle tooling. Compare setup effort on a test instance before committing. If you use Okta to put logins into your own product, the choice is simpler: Auth0 gives 25,000 monthly active users free, Clerk gives 50,000 monthly retained users, and ZITADEL's cloud Free tier counts 100 daily active users. Expect migration work either way. Password hashes can usually be exported, but MFA enrollments and custom authorization rules rarely move cleanly. Compliance matters too, so confirm that the replacement meets the audit scope your customers expect before you switch. Pilot with one app and a small team first.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keycloak | Free (free open source; you host and run it) | Self-hosted | Self-hosted SSO for apps and employees | Docs only |
| ZITADEL | Free (cloud Free tier: 100 daily active users, unlimited users); paid from $100 per month (Pro, 25,000 daily active users) | Self-hosted, Web | Developer-first customer identity | Docs only |
| authentik | Free (Open-source self-hosted edition is free); paid from $5 per internal user/month, billed annually (Enterprise; external users $0.02/month) | Self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes) | A friendlier self-hosted identity provider | Docs only |
| Microsoft Entra ID | Free (Entra ID Free: MFA, unlimited SSO and password self-service; requires an Azure subscription); paid from $7 per user/month, billed annually (Entra ID P1) | Web (SaaS) | Companies already on Microsoft 365 | Docs only |
| Auth0 | Free (up to 25,000 monthly active users); paid from $35 per month (B2C Essentials, 500 MAU; B2B Essentials is $150) | Web API | Customer logins for an app, with a big free tier | Docs only |
| Clerk | Free (Hobby plan: 50,000 monthly retained users per app); paid from $20 per month, billed annually (Pro; $25 billed monthly) | Web API | Drop-in sign-in UI for a web app | Docs only |
| JumpCloud | Paid from $3 per user/month, billed annually (MFA, $4 monthly) | Web browser | Identity & Access | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You need workforce SSO and already pay for Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Entra ID is the pick)
- You want free self-hosted SSO and can run servers (Keycloak is the pick)
- You want a self-hosted identity provider with a simpler setup (authentik is the pick)
- You need customer logins for a web app, free to start (Clerk is the pick)
- You want developer-focused identity with a self-host option (ZITADEL is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Okta features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Okta today: Paid from $6 per user/month, billed annually (Workforce Identity Starter Suite; $1,500 annual contract minimum) (Okta pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Why people look for Okta alternatives
Okta's workforce plans start at $6 per user per month billed annually for Starter and $17 for Essentials, and a $1,500 annual contract minimum applies. Professional and Enterprise are quote-only, and add-ons such as Adaptive MFA, Lifecycle Management and API Access Management are bought on top. Customer Identity has a $3,000 per month base platform on a required annual contract, with add-ons priced by monthly active users. The free Integrator plan covers 10 active users in non-production only. Small teams often find the minimums and stacked add-ons hard to justify.
Keycloak
Compared with Okta: Keycloak is Apache-2.0, a CNCF incubating project that supports SSO, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0. Okta is hosted and supported; with Keycloak you run, patch and scale it yourself, but there are no per-user fees or contract minimum.
Price: Free (free open source; you host and run it) (Keycloak pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Self-hosted. Apache-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 37.6k GitHub stars · latest release 26.8.1 (Oct 13, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Self-hosted SSO for apps and employees.
Worth knowing: Supports SSO, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0 per the project site. CNCF incubating project.
ZITADEL
Compared with Okta: ZITADEL is AGPL-3.0 with a cloud Free tier of 100 daily active users. Its Pro plan is $100 a month for 25,000 daily active users, a different model from Okta's per-user pricing and $1,500 annual minimum. Fewer prebuilt app integrations.
Price: Free (cloud Free tier: 100 daily active users, unlimited users); paid from $100 per month (Pro, 25,000 daily active users) (ZITADEL pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Self-hosted, Web. AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 15.5k GitHub stars · latest release v4.20.0 (Oct 22, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Developer-first customer identity.
authentik
Compared with Okta: authentik's open-source edition is free to self-host under MIT, and its Enterprise plan is $5 per internal user per month billed annually. That undercuts Okta's $6 Starter Suite and has no $1,500 minimum on the page. The integration catalog is smaller.
Price: Free (Open-source self-hosted edition is free); paid from $5 per internal user/month, billed annually (Enterprise; external users $0.02/month) (authentik pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Self-hosted (Docker, Kubernetes). MIT (authentik/enterprise directory under a separate license) (open source).
Project activity: 26.1k GitHub stars · latest release version/2026.8.5 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: A friendlier self-hosted identity provider.
Microsoft Entra ID
Compared with Okta: Entra ID Free gives MFA, unlimited SSO and password self-service, but requires an Azure subscription. P1 is $7 per user per month billed annually, close to Okta's $6 Starter Suite, and fits best if you already run Microsoft 365.
Price: Free (Entra ID Free: MFA, unlimited SSO and password self-service; requires an Azure subscription); paid from $7 per user/month, billed annually (Entra ID P1) (Microsoft Entra ID pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web (SaaS). Proprietary.
Best for: Companies already on Microsoft 365.
Auth0
Compared with Okta: Auth0 is Okta's own customer-identity product, so you stay in the same family. Its free plan covers 25,000 monthly active users, far more generous than Okta Customer Identity's $3,000 a month entry point, but paid tiers climb quickly.
Price: Free (up to 25,000 monthly active users); paid from $35 per month (B2C Essentials, 500 MAU; B2B Essentials is $150) (Auth0 pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web API. Proprietary.
Best for: Customer logins for an app, with a big free tier.
Clerk
Compared with Okta: Clerk's Hobby plan covers 50,000 monthly retained users per app, and Pro is $20 a month billed annually. It is prebuilt sign-in UI for web apps, not workforce SSO and lifecycle management, so it replaces only Okta's customer-identity side.
Price: Free (Hobby plan: 50,000 monthly retained users per app); paid from $20 per month, billed annually (Pro; $25 billed monthly) (Clerk pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web API. Proprietary.
Best for: Drop-in sign-in UI for a web app.
Worth knowing: Billed on monthly retained users: a user counts only if they return at least one day after signing up.
Other popular options (paid)
JumpCloud
Compared with Okta: Directory, SSO and device management in one product. The SSO package is $11 per user monthly billed annually ($13 monthly), above Okta Starter's $6, but includes a 30-day trial and platform tiers that add device control.
Price: Paid from $3 per user/month, billed annually (MFA, $4 monthly) (JumpCloud pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You need workforce SSO and already pay for Microsoft 365: Microsoft Entra ID
- You want free self-hosted SSO and can run servers: Keycloak
- You want a self-hosted identity provider with a simpler setup: authentik
- You need customer logins for a web app, free to start: Clerk
- You want developer-focused identity with a self-host option: ZITADEL
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Keycloak, ZITADEL, authentik, Microsoft Entra ID, Auth0, Clerk: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Okta. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Okta, Keycloak, ZITADEL, authentik, Microsoft Entra ID, Auth0, Clerk, JumpCloud. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.