FusionAuth
Self-hosted auth from a US team. Lighter than Keycloak, paid for support, free for self-hosting.
VISIT FUSIONAUTHQuick facts
- CategorySelf-hosted
- LanguageJava
- PricingFreemium
- LicenseProprietary (free self-hosted, paid cloud + support)
- Created2018
- GitHub stars1.4k
- HIPAA-eligibleNo
- SSO / SAMLOut of box
What it is
FusionAuth is a lighter alternative to Keycloak. Self-hostable for free, paid cloud + support tier. Cleaner admin UI than Keycloak, smaller community. Good fit for teams that want self-hosted auth without the JVM-stack heaviness.
Best for
- Self-hosted auth needs without Keycloak's operational footprint
- Teams wanting a polished admin UI
- Apps that may move to cloud later (FusionAuth Cloud is the paid path)
When not to pick it
Skip FusionAuth if you want fully open-source — the codebase is source-available but not OSS-licensed. Skip if Keycloak's ecosystem is the deciding factor.
My take
FusionAuth is the right answer when Keycloak feels too heavy and SaaS feels too lock-in. License model is the trade-off.
Links
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If FusionAuth is your pick — the next conversation is short
The 30-min call is where your auth choice becomes a real architecture, a migration plan if you are switching, and a price range you can take to your stakeholders. Describe your stack, your scale, your compliance constraints. I tell you whether FusionAuth is genuinely your fit.