Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Keycloak VS Clerk Authentication

Compare Keycloak VS Clerk Authentication and see what are their differences

Keycloak logo Keycloak

Open Source Identity and Access Management for modern Applications and Services.

Clerk Authentication logo Clerk Authentication

Clerk is a complete suite of embeddable UIs, flexible APIs, and admin dashboards to authenticate and manage your users.
  • Keycloak Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-03-20
  • Clerk Authentication Clerk Overview
    Clerk Overview //
    2024-06-03
  • Clerk Authentication Clerk Prebuilt UI Components
    Clerk Prebuilt UI Components //
    2024-06-03
  • Clerk Authentication Clerk Sign In & Sign Up Customization
    Clerk Sign In & Sign Up Customization //
    2024-06-03
  • Clerk Authentication Clerk User Button Component
    Clerk User Button Component //
    2024-06-03
  • Clerk Authentication Clerk User Profile Component
    Clerk User Profile Component //
    2024-06-03

Clerk Authentication

Website
clerk.com
$ Details
-
Release Date
2019 January
Startup details
Country
United States
State
CA
Founder(s)
Colin Sidoti, Braden Sidoti
Employees
50 - 99

Keycloak features and specs

  • Open-Source
    Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution, which means it is free to use and has a community-driven support system. This can lead to lower costs and more flexibility compared to proprietary solutions.
  • Feature-Rich
    Keycloak offers a comprehensive set of features including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), user federation, identity brokering, and social login. This makes it suitable for a wide range of use cases.
  • Customizability
    With Keycloak, you can customize the authentication and authorization processes through its extensible architecture, allowing for the addition of custom features and integrations.
  • Integration Capability
    Keycloak supports integration with various protocols such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML, making it versatile for integrating with different platforms and services.
  • Active Community
    Keycloak has an active and growing community of developers and users who contribute to its improvement and provide support, resources, and shared knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Keycloak

  • Complexity
    Keycloak can be complex to set up and configure, especially for users who are not familiar with identity and access management concepts. This may require additional time and expertise.
  • Resource-Intensive
    Running Keycloak can be resource-intensive, requiring more CPU and memory compared to simpler authentication solutions. This may necessitate higher infrastructure costs.
  • Learning Curve
    The learning curve for Keycloak can be steep for new users due to its wide range of features and configuration options. Ample time might be required to fully understand and utilize its capabilities.
  • Documentation Quality
    While Keycloak has extensive documentation, some users find it to be insufficiently detailed or difficult to navigate, which can impede the setup and troubleshooting process.
  • Maintenance
    Operating a Keycloak instance involves ongoing maintenance tasks such as updates, security patches, and backups, which can be time-consuming and require dedicated resources.

Clerk Authentication features and specs

  • Multifactor Authentication
    Each user's self-serve multifactor settings are enforced automatically during sign-in.
  • Advanced security
    Clerk is SOC 2 type 2 certified and CCPA compliant. We conduct regular third-party audits and penetration tests.
  • Session Management
    Clerk manages the full session lifecycle, including critical security functionality like active device monitoring and session revocation.
  • Email and SMS one-time passcodes
    Fast and reliable one-time passcode delivery with built-in brute force prevention.
  • Passwords
    Simple and secure password authentication, complete with breach detection and recovery options.
  • Magic Links
    Improve sign-up conversion rates and filter out spam/fraud with Magic Links.
  • Social Sign-On
    Add high-conversion Social Sign-on (SSO) to your application in minutes. 20+ options and growing.
  • Bot Detection
    Dramatically reduce fraudulent sign-ups with built-in, continually updated machine learning.
  • Webhooks
    Gain full control of your application by leveraging Clerk's 20+ webhook events.

Analysis of Keycloak

Overall verdict

  • Overall, Keycloak is widely regarded as a good choice for organizations looking for a comprehensive and flexible identity management solution. It is especially praised in environments where open-source software is preferred or where customization and scalability are important.

Why this product is good

  • Keycloak is considered a robust open-source identity and access management solution that provides features like single sign-on (SSO), user federation, identity brokering, and social login. It is designed to secure applications and services with minimum effort and supports various standard protocols, such as OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and SAML 2.0. It also offers a customizable interface and extensive integration capabilities, making it a versatile choice across different industries.

Recommended for

  • Organizations in need of a scalable identity and access management solution
  • Developers seeking an open-source, customizable platform
  • Businesses looking to implement SSO and secure applications quickly
  • Enterprises requiring integration with various identity providers and social media networks
  • Teams preferring a solution that supports industry-standard authentication protocols

Keycloak videos

What is Keycloak and what are the main features | DevNation Live

More videos:

  • Review - Keycloak Overview
  • Review - Easily Secure Your Front and Back End app with Keycloak

Clerk Authentication videos

No Clerk Authentication videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Keycloak and Clerk Authentication)
Identity And Access Management
Identity Provider
77 77%
23% 23
SSO
86 86%
14% 14
Developer Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Keycloak and Clerk Authentication

Keycloak Reviews

12 User Authentication Platforms [Auth0, Firebase Alternatives]
You can integrate Keycloak with your applications to have a single-sign-in and single-sign-out experience. Moreover, one can activate social logins without any modification in code. Additionally, it allows user authentication via existing OpenID Connect or SAML 2.0
Source: geekflare.com
10+ Open-source Single-Sign On (SSO) Solutions
Keycloak is a free, open-source identity and access management system with highly configurable Single-Sign-On (SSO) support.
Source: medevel.com
10 Best Auth0 Alternatives and Similar Platforms
Keycloak may be quite beneficial because it provides a built-in method for syncing with databases, such as LDAP or Active Directory, when your users already are registered on. If you use Social Login for social platforms such as Facebook, Keycloak might be a great tool for your organization.
Top 5 Open Source Single Sign-On Software In the Year 2021
KeyCloak is another free software that is based on OpenID Connect, OAuth2.0, and SAML2.0. It provides SSO capabilities across web applications and web services. Above all, this open source software provides integrations with LDAP and Active Directory. There is a logical user interface where users can manage roles, permissions, and sessions. Moreover, this free solution...
IAM: A comparison of open-source tools
/ Digitalberry news / IAM: A comparison of open-source toolsIAM: A comparison of open-source toolsWhy use an Identity Provider (IdP)?Comparative study of Identity Providers (IdP)1. Our team’s first choice: Keycloak2. In second place of our comparative study: Gluu3. Special mention: FusionAuthDiscover our expertiseContact our experts

Clerk Authentication Reviews

We have no reviews of Clerk Authentication yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Clerk Authentication should be more popular than Keycloak. It has been mentiond 36 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Keycloak mentions (4)

  • Beyond the login page
    Most of the time nowadays, I prefer offloading this to an identity provider, using OpenID Connect or soon Federated Credential Management (FedCM), even if that means shipping an identity provider as part of the deliverables (I generally go with Keycloak, with keycloak-config-cli to provision its configuration). I'm obviously biased though as I work in IT services, developping software mainly for... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Okta Says Hackers Stole Data for All Customer Support Users
    Yet another breach of Okta... Why are companies not running something like keycloak [1] themselves? Are administrative/maintenance costs too high or is it plausible deniability? [1] https://keycloak.org. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • I built a ready-to-use auth server with TypeScript and Express.js
    I'd stick with a solution like https://keycloak.org in that instance. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Authelia is an open-source authentication/authorization server with 2FA/SSO
    A few more projects in this space: - Keycloak (you won't get fired for picking this)[0] - CloudFoundry's UAA[1] - Gluu [2] - Keratin [3] - OpenUnison [4] - Dex[5] - Netlify's GoTrue[6] All of these solutions are a bit different but here are some of the axes: - Whether or not they function as an OAuth provider - Whether they're centered around application-user-login (email + password) or application auth (OAuth) or... - Source: Hacker News / about 4 years ago

Clerk Authentication mentions (36)

  • The simplest way to add Google sign-in to your Next.js app ✍
    Using an additional managed service for auth and storing your user table, like Clerk or Auth0. - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • Go for Node developers: creating an IDP from scratch - Set-up
    On this series, I will teach the process of building an IDP (identity provider), a project I started to create a comunity driven self-hosted opensource version of clerk. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Clerk vs Auth0: Choosing the Right Authentication Solution
    When building a modern web application, robust and user-friendly authentication is crucial. Choosing the right authentication solution can significantly impact your development speed, security, and user experience. Two popular options in the market are Clerk and Auth0. Both offer comprehensive features, but they cater to different needs and priorities. This article provides a detailed comparison of Clerk and... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Here's How Developers Can Ensure Sensitive Data Does Not Accidentally Reach Another Device
    We have created a tutorial to walk you through how to build a Remix app using Clerk as an authentication layer. Clerk is a popular user authentication and management tool. You’ll use Neon Postgres as your data layer and leverage Neon Authorize to secure all the data for each logged-in customer. Each row in the table will designate a userID, which Clerk provides. Only those authenticated with the userID can... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Build a Production-Ready SaaS Application
    It uses Clerk for authentication, has a Stripe integration for payments, and uses Tailwind and shadcn/ui for styling and components. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Keycloak and Clerk Authentication, you can also consider the following products

Auth0 - Auth0 is a program for people to get authentication and authorization services for their own business use.

Okta - Enterprise-grade identity management for all your apps, users & devices

MonoCloud - The authentication platform that helps you secure your apps with branded login pages and your choice of identity methods. Stop worrying about auth and start building with MonoCloud.

OneLogin - On-demand SSO, directory integration, user provisioning and more

Amazon Cognito - Amazon Cognito lets you add user sign-up, sign-in, and access control to your web and mobile apps quickly and easily. It scales to millions of users and supports sign-in with social identity providers and enterprise identity providers via SAML 2.0.

Gigya - Using Social Login, RaaS and other features, we help companies build better customer relationships with Customer Identity Management. Learn more here.