Authentik vs Clair

Authentik and Clair solve different problems: Authentik is a self-hosted identity provider handling authentication and access across protocols like OIDC,…

Best for Authentik: Teams needing self-hosted single sign-on and access management across a wide range of protocols (OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS), plus a built-in remote access proxy for internal infrastructure.
Best for Clair: DevOps and security teams needing to statically scan container images for known vulnerabilities as part of a CI/CD pipeline or registry workflow, such as those using the Quay container registry.

At a Glance

 AuthentikClair
Primary categorySecuritySecurity
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelFreemiumOpen Source (Free)
Starting priceFree (open source); Enterprise from $5/internal user/monthFree
Free planYesYes
Free trialNot documentedNot documented
PlatformsNot documentedNot documented
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APIYesYes

Key Differences

Product Category

Authentik: Authentik is an identity provider handling authentication and authorization protocols (OAuth2/OIDC, SAML2, SCIM, LDAP, RADIUS, Kerberos).

Clair: Clair is a static container image vulnerability scanner that parses image contents and matches them against vulnerability data without executing the container.

These tools solve entirely different problems, so buyers need to be clear on which category of tool they actually need before comparing further.

Pricing Structure

Authentik: Authentik's open-source core is free and self-hosted; Enterprise costs $5/user/month (internal) plus $0.02/external user/month, and Enterprise Plus starts at $20,000/year.

Clair: Clair is entirely free and open source, with no paid tier or pricing plans documented beyond the free Open Source offering.

Buyers on a fixed budget need to know whether a tool ever requires a paid subscription as usage grows.

User Interface

Authentik: Authentik provides a full web UI for managing policies, MFA/passkeys, conditional access, and a remote access proxy (RDP/VNC/SSH).

Clair: Clair has no graphical UI documented on its project site; it is typically consumed via API or through an integrated registry like Quay.

Teams that need a point-and-click admin console versus an API-first, registry-integrated tool will have very different day-to-day operating experiences.

Integration Ecosystem

Authentik: Authentik integrates with 30+ named enterprise services including Google Workspace, Microsoft Entra, Slack, GitHub Enterprise, Atlassian Cloud, AWS, Grafana, Stripe, and Salesforce.

Clair: Clair's ecosystem centers on broad Linux distribution and package support (Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, SUSE, Oracle, Alpine, Amazon Linux, VMware Photon, Python) and is used as the vulnerability scanner behind the Quay container registry.

The value of each tool depends heavily on whether your stack already touches the specific systems each one integrates with.

Deployment Model

Authentik: Authentik requires self-hosting for every tier, including Enterprise — there is no official cloud-hosted option.

Clair: Clair also requires self-hosting with no hosted SaaS documented on the project site.

Both tools place the operational burden of hosting on the buyer, which matters for teams without ops resources.

Feature-by-Feature

Identity & Access Management

FeatureAuthentikClair
OAuth2/OIDC supportAvailableUnavailable
SAML supportAvailableUnavailable
MFA / passkeysAvailableUnavailable
Remote access proxy (RDP/VNC/SSH)AvailableUnavailable

Container & Vulnerability Scanning

FeatureAuthentikClair
Static container image analysisUnavailableAvailable
Vulnerability matching against distro packagesUnavailableAvailable
Vulnerability notification serviceUnavailableAvailable

Deployment & Pricing

FeatureAuthentikClair
Free open-source self-hosted coreAvailableAvailable
Official hosted/cloud SaaSUnavailableUnavailable
Paid enterprise planAvailableUnavailable
Graphical web UIAvailableNot documented

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Authentik

Open Source — Free N/A
Enterprise — From $5/internal user/month Annual
Enterprise Plus — Starting at $20,000/year Annual

Clair

Open Source — Free N/A

Pros & Cons

Authentik

Pros

  • Free open-source core is fully featured for self-hosting
  • Broad protocol support (OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS)
  • Over 1 million reported installations and active development
  • Flexible deployment via Docker, Kubernetes, or Terraform

Cons

  • Enterprise features like advanced compliance and dedicated support require a paid tier
  • Self-hosting requires ongoing infrastructure management
  • External-user pricing on the Enterprise tier can be harder to estimate for consumer-scale deployments

Clair

Pros

  • Free and open source under Apache 2.0
  • Proven at scale as the scanning engine behind Quay.io
  • Broad coverage across major Linux distributions and language ecosystems
  • Flexible deployment options, including air-gapped environments

Cons

  • No official managed cloud version; requires self-hosting and operational investment
  • Setup and datastore management require DevOps/security engineering expertise
  • No built-in dashboard for non-technical users beyond what integrating tools provide
  • Best experienced when paired with a registry like Quay rather than used fully standalone

Use Cases

Choose Authentik: Teams needing self-hosted single sign-on and access management across a wide range of protocols (OIDC, SAML, LDAP, SCIM, RADIUS), plus a built-in remote access proxy for internal infrastructure.
Choose Clair: DevOps and security teams needing to statically scan container images for known vulnerabilities as part of a CI/CD pipeline or registry workflow, such as those using the Quay container registry.
Need both: A platform engineering team building internal infrastructure could deploy Authentik for workforce SSO into internal apps and separately run Clair to scan container images pushed to their registry for vulnerabilities — different layers of the same DevSecOps stack rather than overlapping tools.

Authentik

  • Self-hosted SSO for internal apps — Centralizing authentication for internally hosted tools and services.
  • Enterprise identity management — Integrating with Google Workspace or Microsoft Entra ID with compliance and audit needs.

Clair

  • Container registry security scanning — Acting as the scanning backend for a private or public container registry, continuously checking stored images for known CVEs.
  • CI/CD pipeline security gates — Scanning images during the build pipeline to catch known-vulnerable packages before deployment.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Authentik or Clair better for single sign-on?

Authentik, since it's an identity provider supporting OIDC, SAML, LDAP, and other protocols; Clair doesn't handle identity or access at all — it's a container vulnerability scanner.

Can Clair be used for identity management?

No. Clair's documented functionality is limited to statically analyzing container images and matching their contents against vulnerability data.

Is Authentik free?

Yes, the open-source edition is free and self-hosted; paid Enterprise tiers start at $5/user/month (internal) plus $0.02/external user/month.

Does Clair have a free plan?

Clair is entirely free and open source with no paid tier documented.

Do Authentik and Clair integrate with each other?

This isn't documented in either tool's facts; they serve unrelated functions (identity versus image scanning) and would typically operate independently within a broader DevSecOps stack.

Which one requires self-hosting?

Both. Neither Authentik nor Clair documents an official vendor-hosted cloud option — every tier of each tool requires you to host it yourself.

Read the full Authentik review · Read the full Clair review