Our take
Pick authentik if homelab and platform teams who will self-host OSS at $0 for OIDC/SAML SSO, then move to Enterprise at $5/internal user/month (annual) plus $0.02/external user when they need PAM, Entra/Workspace sync, or ticketed support over $1k. Pick NetBird if infra teams who will stay on Cloud Free at €0 (5 users, 100 machines) or the $0 self-host binary while they add a first peer, then buy Team at
WireGuard mesh desk
Best for
authentik SSO you start at $0
NetBird Peers you start at €0
Free plan
authentik $0 · / Free. OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, Kerberos, proxy. OpenID Certified™. Web-based RDP/SSH. Community Discord. No vendor support
NetBird $0 · bSD-3. You run the management + signal + TURN stack. Confirmed by the repo license. Hosting is your bill
Lowest paid
authentik Enterprise $5/mo
NetBird Cloud Team €6/user/mo
Next step up
authentik
NetBird Cloud Business €12
Runs where
authentik Local or hosted
NetBird Local; you host it
Watch out
authentik There is no authentik Cloud
NetBird Cloud Free is 5 users and 100 machines
Last checked
authentik 2026-10-22 · goauthentik.io/pricing
NetBird 2026-10-23 · netbird.io/pricing
homelab and platform teams who will self-host OSS at $0 for OIDC/SAML SSO, then move to Enterprise at $5/internal user/month (annual) plus $0.02/external user when they need PAM, Entra/Workspace sync, or ticketed support over $1k.
Read the authentik pageinfra teams who will stay on Cloud Free at €0 (5 users, 100 machines) or the $0 self-host binary while they add a first peer, then buy Team at €6/user/month when they need unlimited users, enterprise IdP, and SCIM.
Read the NetBird page