Both are open-source identity platforms with self-hosting options, but Keycloak is entirely free with no paid tiers or managed offering, while Ory is a…
Best for Keycloak: Teams wanting a fully free, self-hosted IAM platform with LDAP/Active Directory federation and no ongoing subscription cost, and the operational capacity to run it themselves.
Best for Ory: Teams wanting a growth path from a free developer tier to a managed, horizontally-scaling production identity service starting at $770/year, with built-in B2B SSO and machine-to-machine authentication.
At a Glance
Keycloak
Ory
Primary category
Security
Security
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Open Source
Freemium
Starting price
Free
Free (Developer tier); Production plan from $70/month
Free plan
Not documented
Yes
Free trial
Not documented
Not documented
Platforms
Not documented
Not documented
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Not documented
Public API
Yes
Yes
Key Differences
Pricing Structure
Keycloak: Keycloak is entirely free and open source with no paid plans.
Ory: Ory is freemium: a free Developer tier, then $770/year for Production, $9,350/year for Growth, and custom Enterprise pricing.
A zero-cost model versus a tiered subscription changes budgeting and long-term cost planning very differently.
Deployment Options
Keycloak: Keycloak is self-hosted only, with no official managed cloud offering.
Ory: Ory offers self-hosted deployment, an Ory Enterprise License for private infrastructure, and the fully managed Ory Network.
Managed hosting removes the operational burden of running identity infrastructure in-house.
Directory Federation
Keycloak: Keycloak explicitly supports LDAP and Active Directory user federation.
Ory: Ory's documented features focus on CIAM, B2B, and machine-to-machine identity without calling out LDAP/AD federation.
Enterprises with existing on-premises directories need federation support to avoid duplicating identity data.
Machine-to-Machine Support
Keycloak: Keycloak's feature list does not call out machine-to-machine authentication specifically.
Ory: Ory explicitly documents machine-to-machine authentication for services and automated agents.
As service-to-service and AI agent authentication becomes more common, dedicated M2M support matters for modern architectures.
Governance and Scale
Keycloak: Keycloak is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) incubating project governed by the community.
Ory: Ory reports 48,000+ GitHub stars and managing 3.3 billion identities across its network, with a stateless horizontal-scaling architecture described as supporting very large deployments.
Scale claims and community size can be a signal of production readiness and long-term project viability.
Feature-by-Feature
Deployment & Hosting
Feature
Keycloak
Ory
Self-hosted deployment
Available
Available
Fully managed cloud service
Unavailable
Available
Free tier
Available
Limited
Identity & Access Features
Feature
Keycloak
Ory
LDAP / Active Directory federation
Available
Not documented
Machine-to-machine authentication
Not documented
Available
B2B SSO / SCIM
Not documented
Available
Fine-grained authorization
Available
Not documented
Admin console
Available
Not documented
Pricing & Support
Feature
Keycloak
Ory
Paid production tier
Unavailable
Available
Vendor commercial support
Unavailable
Available
Community/OSS governance
Available
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
Keycloak
Open Source (Self-Hosted) — Free N/A
Red Hat build of Keycloak (Commercial Support) — Custom pricing Contact Red Hat
Ory
Developer — Free N/A
Production — $70/month + usage Monthly
Growth — $9,350/year + usage Annual
Enterprise — Custom Annual
Pros & Cons
Keycloak
Pros
Free and fully open-source with no per-user licensing fees
Full standards support (OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML 2.0) for broad interoperability
Native LDAP/Active Directory integration for enterprise environments
CNCF-incubated with vendor-neutral governance since 2023
Backed by an active community and optional Red Hat commercial support
Cons
Requires self-hosting and ongoing operational maintenance
Steeper learning curve than managed SaaS IAM providers
No official managed cloud offering directly from the Keycloak project
Admin console UX can feel dated compared to newer commercial competitors
Scaling to very high traffic requires careful infrastructure tuning
Ory
Pros
Fully open-source core components under the permissive Apache 2.0 license
Modular architecture lets teams adopt only the pieces they need (identity, OAuth2, permissions, or gateway)
Zanzibar-style permissions engine (Keto) handles complex authorization models that many competitors lack
Both self-hosted and fully managed (Ory Network) deployment options available
API-first, headless design integrates cleanly into custom frontends and mobile apps
Cons
Self-hosting the full stack requires meaningful DevOps and identity domain expertise
Documentation and configuration can be complex for teams new to headless identity infrastructure
Usage-based pricing on Ory Network can grow significantly with active user and permission-check volume
Higher-tier features like multitenancy are gated behind the more expensive Growth and Enterprise plans
Smaller ecosystem and community size compared to more established players like Keycloak
Use Cases
Choose Keycloak: Teams wanting a fully free, self-hosted IAM platform with LDAP/Active Directory federation and no ongoing subscription cost, and the operational capacity to run it themselves.
Choose Ory: Teams wanting a growth path from a free developer tier to a managed, horizontally-scaling production identity service starting at $770/year, with built-in B2B SSO and machine-to-machine authentication.
Need both: A company might run Keycloak for internal or workforce identity tied to existing directories while trialing Ory's free Developer tier for a separate customer-facing product before deciding which platform to standardize on for that use case.
Keycloak
Enterprise single sign-on — Organizations centralize login across internal and customer-facing applications using Keycloak's SSO capabilities.
API and microservices authorization — Development teams use Keycloak's OAuth 2.0 and fine-grained authorization to secure APIs and microservice-to-microservice calls.
Regulated or air-gapped deployments — Government agencies and regulated industries self-host Keycloak to keep identity data fully within their own infrastructure.
Ory
Consumer app authentication — Product teams use Ory Kratos and Hydra to add login, MFA, and social sign-on to consumer-facing web and mobile apps without building identity infrastructure in-house.
B2B SaaS authorization and multitenancy — B2B SaaS companies use Ory Keto's Zanzibar-style permissions engine to model complex, multi-tenant role and resource permissions.
Zero-trust API access control — Platform and security teams deploy Ory Oathkeeper as an identity-aware proxy in front of internal and external APIs to enforce zero-trust access policies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Keycloak free?
Yes, Keycloak is fully open source with no licensing cost.
Does Ory have a free tier?
Yes, Ory's Developer tier is free and includes 2 development environments and community support.
How much does Ory's Production plan cost?
$770 per year.
Does Keycloak support machine-to-machine authentication?
This isn't documented among Keycloak's listed features, unlike Ory which explicitly supports machine-to-machine authentication for services and agents.
Which platform supports LDAP or Active Directory federation?
Keycloak explicitly documents this. Ory's documented features don't call out LDAP/AD federation.
Can Ory be self-hosted like Keycloak?
Yes, Ory offers an open-source self-hosted deployment option and an Ory Enterprise License, in addition to its fully managed Ory Network.