authentik

What it is for

authentik is a self-host identity desk: you add an application, watch logins on the admin overview, and you can run Open Source at $0 or Enterprise at $5/internal user/month plus $0.02/external user/month (billed annually). Use it when the job is SSO you start at $0, not when you need a $20 chat seat.

What makes it unique: the cover is the official authentik admin overview (applications, login chart, recent events, Outpost / sync status) from the docs screen_admin_light still — not a pricing card. The overview itself is ops of Applications. There is no hosted authentik Cloud (FAQ: they do not host your instance).

Key features

• Applications — the service you put behind SSO (admin still; authentik 2026.5). One app. OIDC / SAML / LDAP / proxy providers are how this app talks, not a second product. The cover chart is ops.
• Flows & stages — the login graph a user walks (flows; pricing Open Source). A pipeline, not an app. MFA, identification, and consent stages sit on this.
• Directory — users and groups you store (pricing users). A person, not an app. Custom object attributes sit on this. Service accounts are free on Enterprise (printed: no cost for service accounts).
• Policies — an access rule a flow or app evaluates (policies). A gate, not a login step. Conditional access is ops of this.
• Self-host OSS / Enterprise — the OSS app at $0, or Enterprise at $5/user/month + $0.02/external user/month (pricing; GitHub). A license, not an app. PAM, mTLS, Entra / Workspace connectors, and scheduled offboarding are Enterprise add-ons, not extra Free surfaces. There is no SaaS host — you run the containers.

Protocols on the OSS card (RADIUS, Kerberos, SCIM, RDP/SSH) are providers on Applications, not five more desks.

Who it's for

Best fit: 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.

Pricing

Verified 2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) from goauthentik.io/pricing. authentik is self-host only (FAQ: “We do not currently provide a hosted version”). Enterprise is users, billed annually.

• Open Source — $0 / Free. OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS, Kerberos, proxy. OpenID Certified™. Web-based RDP/SSH. Community Discord. No vendor support.
• Enterprise — $5/internal user/month + $0.02/external user/month, billed annually. No cost for service accounts. Ticket-based support for subscriptions over $1k. PAM, agent accounts, Google Workspace / Entra ID, mTLS, enhanced audit log, scheduled offboarding, Windows device login, and the rest of the printed Enterprise list.
• Enterprise Plus — starting at $20k annually. Invoice, dedicated support/SLAs, volume discounts, multi-instance, FIPS. Confirm the live quote above $20k — do not invent a higher dollar.

An external user (printed footnote) cannot open the application dashboard and only uses authentik in the background for SSO. Internal users can.

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Limitations / costs

• There is no authentik Cloud. You run Docker/K8s (or the AWS CloudFormation one-click). The $5 card is a license, not a host.
• $5 is per internal user / month, billed annually, plus $0.02 per external user. A customer-facing SSO pool is the $0.02 meter, not a flat card.
• OSS has no vendor support. Support starts as part of Enterprise subscriptions over $1k.
• An IdP desk, not a secrets vault. For secrets see Infisical. For a hosted CIAM card see Logto.

Alternatives

• Logto — hosted CIAM when you will not self-host authentik containers.
• Zitadel — another OSS IdP when you want ZITADEL’s Cloud card instead of authentik’s $5 annual license.
• Infisical — secrets when you are not issuing SSO.

Official tutorial

Official authentik channel video: authentik 2026.5 feature walkthrough (oEmbed author: authentik). First-party version walkthrough; the docs admin-overview still is the cover.

Written path: goauthentik.io/pricing plus the admin still.

Website

https://goauthentik.io

Repository

https://github.com/goauthentik/authentik

Source

Catalog row curated for AI Tools Nav. Cover is the official authentik admin overview from the docs still. Dollars checked on goauthentik.io/pricing (OSS $0; Enterprise $5/user/month + $0.02/external user, annual; Plus from $20k/year). Tutorial oEmbed author: authentik.

Last verified

2026-10-22 (Asia/Shanghai) editorial check.