- Introduction
- Developer-Focused Authorization Tools
- Enterprise Identity and Access Management Solutions
- Open Source Authorization Solutions
- Specialized Authorization Tools
- Conclusion
Authorization and authentication are the foundation of modern application security. They decide who can access what and when, serving as critical infrastructure that protects your data and users. As cyber threats get more sophisticated, strong authorization and authentication matter more and more for all organizations.
In 2025, there are many authorization tools, with solutions for every organization, environment, and security requirement. From cloud native to open-source, the options can feel endless.
In this article, I will cover the top 21 authorization systems with a focus on solutions that are actively maintained, well-documented, and known for their reliability and performance. Some of these solutions are mainly focused on authentication with minimal authorization functionality, but I still include them for completeness. Whether you’re building a new application or strengthening your existing security stack, this guide will help you navigate the authorization maze and make informed decisions for your needs.
Developer-focused authorization tools prioritize integration simplicity, flexible implementation, and specialized capabilities that address the unique challenges of modern application development.
.png)
Oso Cloud is a specialized authorization-as-a-service platform for developers who need fine-grained access control without the complexity of traditional solutions. Unlike full-stack IAM platforms that try to solve all identity problems, Oso focuses on authorization with a developer-first approach.
I would argue that Oso Cloud’s magic is in its purpose-built Polar language for authorization modeling. This declarative language makes complex authorization patterns accessible to developers without security expertise. Instead of implementing authorization logic across all your API endpoints, you can define central policies that express access rules in a way that’s both powerful and readable.
The hybrid architecture gives you unprecedented flexibility in data handling. This, in my opinion, is very important to security-conscious orgs. While many authorization solutions force you to centralize all data, Oso lets you choose what data to centralize vs what to keep in your app databases. Notably, this eliminates the overhead of full data replication while still giving you central policy management—perfect for microservices.
Oso Cloud integrates with any authentication system rather than providing an all-in-one identity solution. This specialization delivers exceptional authorization capabilities but requires pairing with a separate authentication provider for complete identity management.
Pros of Oso:
Cons of Oso:
What is Oso’s Pricing?
Oso offers diverse pricing fit for specific scales of businesses. Developer-tier starts at $0/month, where as startup-tier begins at $149/month. Their growth-tier and migration services over custom pricing based on a consultation with an expert.
.png)
Auth0 is a platform centered around identity management, making advanced authentication and authorization available through clean-cut APIs and SDKs. Unlike traditional enterprise IAM solutions that put administrative controls first, Auth0 was built from the ground up to make identity simple for developers.Auth0 provides built-in support for basic authorization through Rules and Actions. For more complex authorization that goes beyond RBAC, they offer Auth0 FGA, an add-on authorization product that requires a separate implementation.”
Auth0 has an extensible model. With Rules, Hooks, and Actions, developers can customize authentication flows without touching application code. This makes Auth0 particularly strong at adaptations—from enriching user profiles with data from external systems to limited custom authorization logic.
Auth0’s pre-built components save implementation time. Instead of spending weeks building secure login flows, password reset functionality, and social login integration, developers can use Auth0’s drop-in widgets and libraries to implement these features in hours with security built-in.
Pros of Auth0:
Cons of Auth0:
What is Auth0’s Pricing?
Auth0 offers a free-tier as well as premium-tiers. The most basic of the premium-tiers can range from $35-$150/month for 500 users based on use case. They also offer yearly pricing, as well as range to pick monthly active users.
Amazon Cognito is a full authentication and authorization service deeply integrated with the AWS ecosystem. Unlike standalone identity providers, Cognito provides native access to AWS services while supporting applications hosted anywhere. For organizations that strongly prefer an all-in-one solution, choosing Amazon Cognito alongside the AWS stack is an intuitive option.
Cognito’s value is a function of its scalability and pay-as-you-go pricing. The service can handle authentication for millions of users with no upfront costs or capacity planning. This is helpful for consumer facing applications with unpredictable growth or seasonal usage spikes.
Cognito’s user pools and identity pools provide a flexible foundation for different identity scenarios. User pools manage user directories and authentication, while identity pools provide temporary AWS credentials to access backend resources. This allows developers to have fine grained control over authenticated users and anonymous visitors.
Pros of Amazon Cognito:
Cons of Amazon Cognito:
What is Amazon Cognito’s Pricing:
Amazon Cognito offers a pay-as-you-go pricing model making it cost effective with usage variance. They offer a free-tier for the first 10,000 users and charge per user based on region after crossing the threshold. They also offer more advanced-tiers, which come at greater costs and no free trials.
.png)
Keycloak is a comprehensive open-source identity and access management solution that provides enterprise-grade capabilities without licensing costs. Unlike proprietary IAM platforms, Keycloak offers complete control over your identity infrastructure, making it particularly attractive for organizations concerned about vendor lock-in.
Keycloak is ideal for organizations that are seeking a feature-rich but also flexible solution. The platform provides sophisticated capabilities including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), social login, and fine-grained authorization (FGA)—all with extensive customization options through themes, service provider interfaces (SPIs), and direct code modifications.
Pros of Keycloak:
Cons of Keycloak:
What is Keycloak’s Pricing?
For organizations building customer-facing applications, Keycloak offers significant cost advantages. Without per-user licensing fees, you can scale to millions of users without escalating identity costs. This makes it particularly valuable for consumer applications, SaaS platforms, and other scenarios with large or unpredictable user bases.
.png)
Cerbos is an open source authorization service that decouples permission logic from application code. Unlike traditional approaches where authorization rules are scattered throughout the application, Cerbos centralizes policies in declarative YAML files that can be versioned, tested, and audited independently.
For organizations that care about the developer workflow, Cerbos is a strong candidate alongside other developer-first solutions like Oso. The platform provides local development tools, policy testing frameworks, and CI/CD integration—so authorization is part of the development process, not an afterthought. This "shift-left" approach helps catch authorization bugs early before they become security incidents.
Cerbos is great at handling complex, attribute-based authorization scenarios. The policy language supports complex rules that consider resource attributes, user context, and environmental factors when making decisions. This allows for precise permissions that adapt to business requirements without code changes.
Pros of Cerbos:
Cons of Cerbos:
What is Cerbos’s Pricing?
Cerbos offers multiple plans. Their open-source plan of course is free forever. Cerbos Hub begins at $0/month for up to 100 monthly active principals. Their growth subscription retails at $25/month based on monthly active principals.
Enterprise Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions provide comprehensive platforms for managing user identities, authentication, and authorization across large organizations. These solutions typically offer robust features for governance, compliance, and security at scale.
.png)
Microsoft Entra ID is a cloud-based identity and access management service that is a core piece of Microsoft’s broader identity ecosystem. Similar to AWS Cognito, Microsoft Entra ID is natively integrated with the Microsoft ecosystem while also having cross platform support. Accordingly, Microsoft Entra ID is a strong fit for organizations deeply rooted in other Microsoft products like Azure and Active Directory.
Microsoft Entra ID’s intelligent conditional access engine evaluates risk in real-time based on user behavior, device health and location. Do note that advanced security features require premium licenses which can be expensive, even for large organizations.
Pros of Microsoft Entra ID:
Cons of Microsoft Entra ID:
What is Microsoft Entra ID’s Pricing?
Microsoft Entra ID features higher pricing compared to some competitors. However, it also sports a beginner-tier, retailing at $6/user/month with annual commitment.
.png)
What is Okta Identity Cloud?
Okta Identity Cloud is a cloud-based identity platform with a focus on usability and integration breadth. Unlike many IAM solutions tied to specific ecosystems, Okta is independent and is a universal identity layer across multiple technology environments.
With over 7,000 pre-built integrations, Okta connects to almost any application without custom development. Unified admin features provide a single pane of glass for managing identities and policies. Developers get comprehensive SDKs and documentation to embed identity into custom applications.
Okta, however, features a noteworthy tradeoff: you get extensive integrations and feature-rich centralized management, but at a hefty price and with limited on-prem support. In essence, Okta trades an economical price and some security guarantees for any easy experience.
Pros of Okta Identity Cloud:
Cons of Okta Identity Cloud:
What is Okta Identity Cloud’s Pricing?
Okta Identity Cloud features premium pricing compared to some competitors and complex enterprise deployments requiring specialized expertise. Like Microsoft Entra ID, Okta has a beginner tier also retailing at $6/user/month.
.png)
Ping Identity is a multi-cloud offering with flexible deployment options including cloud, on-premises, and hybrid support. What sets Ping apart is its focus on large enterprises and regulatory compliance. Ping is worth evaluating if you are a global company handling complex identity challenges.
The platform has strong federation for complex scenarios across multiple domains, specialized tools for securing APIs and microservices, and an enterprise-grade architecture that can handle millions of identities without performance degradation.
That said, implementing Ping does requires expertise, especially for complex environments. The admin interface is a lot more intricate than cloud-only options. Some integrations require a custom config. Additionally, the solution carries a hefty price tag.
Pros of Ping Identity:
Cons of Ping Identity:
What is Ping Identity’s Pricing?
Ping identity has their premium pricing split into two categories: customer and workforce. The base plan for each is $35k/year and $3/user/month respectively.
.png)
IBM Security Verify is an AI-enhanced IAM platform that fuses identity governance with real-time risk analytics for high-compliance enterprises.
IBM Security Verify combines traditional IAM with AI driven security analytics, so it is particularly useful for organizations that prioritize risk-based security. Unlike many IAM solutions that treat security as an afterthought, IBM has built its platform with security intelligence at the heart.
What makes IBM Security Verify unique is its integration with the broader IBM security ecosystem. The platform shares threat intelligence and security context across multiple security domains, giving a more complete view of risk than standalone IAM solutions can.
The platform sports fairly strong AI-driven risk detection. Advanced algorithms detect suspicious behavior and potential account compromise in real time, so risk can be mitigated before damage is done. This is especially useful for high privilege accounts that could cause massive damage if compromised.
Using IBM Security Verify can be a good idea if you’re already using IBM security products, need robust identity governance capabilities, or have a large compliance burden. There is a notable downside though: the implementation is quite involved and the product is not user-friendly.
Pros of IBM Security Verify:
Cons of IBM Security Verify:
What is IBM Security Verify’s Pricing?
IBM Security Verify pricing is offered based on use case meaning the monthly user cost will be fully dependent on the population of individuals and which of their 4 use cases are selected. The estimated cost for 1,000 users can range between $1.989 -$4.044/use case/user/month.
.png)
CyberArk Identity is a privileged-access-first IAM suite that locks down admin credentials, rotates secrets automatically, and records every high-risk session.
CyberArk Identity focuses on privileged access—the administrative accounts and high-privilege identities that are the biggest risk to your organization. Unlike general purpose IAM solutions, CyberArk built its platform with privileged security as a core component.
What sets CyberArk apart is its comprehensive credential management. The platform stores credentials securely, rotates them automatically, and monitors them in detail including passwords, SSH keys, and certificates. This reduces the risk of credential theft and misuse which are common attack vectors in major breaches.
CyberArk’s session monitoring records and audits privileged sessions for another layer of security. This creates accountability for administrative actions and provides valuable forensic information in the event of a breach. Security teams can see exactly what was done during privileged sessions to identify potential misuse or compromise.
For organizations that specifically care about session monitoring and compliance auditing, CyberArk is a strong candidate. It’s also a product optimized for least privilege principles with support for just-in-time (JIT) access that minimizes standing privileges.
Pros of CyberArk Identity:
Cons of CyberArk Identity:
What is CyberArk Identity’s Pricing?
Although CyberArk Identity’s pricing is not publicly available, they offer self-serve free trials, demos, and consultations to test the product and receive pricing before deciding to purchase it for you or your team.
.png)
OneLogin is a cloud-based identity and access management (IAM) platform that delivers fast single sign-on and MFA for workforce and customer apps.
Some of the IAM solutions that we’ve discussed so far put an emphasis on features over user experience. OneLogin on the other hand has designed its platform with simplicity in mind. For organizations that want a simple IAM solution with strong security, OneLogin is a good candidate.
Accordingly, OneLogin’s value is a matter of time-to-value. The streamlined implementation process allows you to deploy core IAM capabilities in days, not months. It ships with security benefits without professional services engagements. This is especially helpful for mid-sized companies with limited IAM expertise.
OneLogin’s directory integration is comprehensive. The platform supports multiple directory sources including Active Directory, LDAP, and HR systems. This allows you to keep your identity data in authoritative sources and extend access management to cloud applications and resources.
Pros of OneLogin:
Cons of OneLogin:
What is OneLogin’s Pricing?
OneLogin’s pricing is based on the scale of identity you need (Workforce, B2B, Customer and Education). Although their pricing for most identity packages are not public, the basic Workforce Identity bundle is, retailing at $4/user/month.
Open source authorization tools provide flexibility, transparency, and community-driven innovation without the licensing costs of proprietary solutions. These tools are particularly valuable for organizations that need customization options and want to avoid vendor lock-in.
OpenFGA (Fine-Grained Authorization) is an open-source authorization system inspired by Google’s Zanzibar paper, the same technology that powers permissions at companies like Google, GitHub and Netflix. Unlike traditional role-based systems, OpenFGA is relationship-based (ReBAC) which makes some arrangements easier and others overly-complex.
OpenFGA can be configured to handle authorization at scale. The system is designed for high performance, with authorization checks that complete in milliseconds even with complex relationship graphs. This means you can make many authorization decisions in real time without introducing latency.
OpenFGA’s modeling language lets you express authorization relationships in a simple way. Instead of complex code, you define models that represent how users relate to resources—like ownership, membership or custom relationships—so even complex permission schemes are understandable and maintainable.
For organizations that are open to investing heavy developer hours into implementation, OpenFGA can provide a customizable and scalable solution.
Pros of OpenFGA:
Cons of OpenFGA:
What is OpenFGA’s Pricing?
OpenFGA is open-source meaning there are no licensing costs, however, there may be significant operational costs.
Casbin is a powerful and flexible authorization library that supports almost any permission scenario. Unlike solutions tied to specific paradigms, Casbin can implement RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC and other models or even combinations of these through its model-based approach.
Casbin also features a language-agnostic design. With implementations for Go, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, .NET and many other languages, Casbin provides the same authorization capabilities across different stacks. For organizations with heterogeneous environments, Casbin can be an attractive solution.
Casbin’s enforcement architecture separates the authorization model from policy storage, so you can store policies in files, databases, or custom backends—and the same enforcement logic will work. This separation allows you to adapt to different infrastructure requirements without changing your application code.
Pros of Casbin:
Cons of Casbin:
What is Casbin’s Pricing?
Casbin is open-source. Accordingly, there are no licensing costs. However, there are naturally operational costs of leveraging the solution.
.png)
OPAL (Open Policy Administration Layer) is an open-source project that solves the problem of distributing authorization data and policies. Unlike traditional authorization systems that only focus on decision making, OPAL keeps policy agents up-to-date with the latest policies and data.
What makes OPAL special is it can detect changes in policies and data sources and push those updates to policy agents across distributed environments. Real-time sync means consistent authorization decisions even in complex microservices environments where traditional approaches lead to inconsistencies.
OPAL’s flexible integration allows it to work with multiple policy engines and data sources. Whether you’re using Open Policy Agent (OPA), AWS Cedar. or other policy engines, OPAL can keep them up to date with the latest information from APIs, databases, Git repositories, and other sources, creating a complete authorization system.
Pros of Opal:
Cons of Opal:
What is Opal’s Pricing?
Opal itself doesn't have a cost, but integrating it into your environment and potentially using related services from vendors might incur costs
.png)
Permit.io is a policy-as-code authorization platform that offers both open-source self-hosting and a managed cloud for fine-grained access control.
Permit gives developers a mixed value-prop: the flexibility of open-source software and the convenience of cloud services. That hybrid approach means development teams don't have to choose between the two. That's particularly valuable for developers who don't have the time or expertise to set up and manage their own authorization systems from scratch.
What really sets Permit apart is its focus on making developers' lives easier. The platform provides the tools (SDKs, management interfaces, and deployment tools) that let teams build sophisticated authorization systems without needing a team of security experts. That means teams can get fine-grained permissions up and running much faster.
One of the key benefits of Permit's “policy-as-code” approach is that it keeps authorization logic separate from application code. That means you can manage and enforce authorization policies centrally across all your services. Policies can be version-controlled, tested, and deployed independently of your app updates. That makes your authorization system more maintainable and secure.
Pros of Permit:
Cons of Permit:
What is Permit’s Pricing:
Even though Permit offers a free open-source plan, they also have cloud-based plans with the basic plan starting at $5/month for up to 25,000 MAU and 100 tenants.
Cedar is AWS’s open-source policy language and authorization engine that provides a powerful yet approachable way to implement policy-as-code. Unlike general purpose programming languages used for authorization, Cedar is purpose-built for expressing access control policies with a syntax that’s both powerful and readable.
What makes Cedar a strong candidate is its support for multiple authorization paradigms. The language can express role-based access control (RBAC), attribute-based access control (ABAC), and even relationship based patterns in a single syntax. Accordingly, you can implement the permission model that you need without switching between different tools.
Cedar’s automated reasoning capabilities set it apart from many authorization solutions. The system can analyze policies to validate properties, detect conflicts, and optimize evaluation. These are capabilities that help prevent security gaps from getting to production. This “shift left” approach to authorization improves security and reduces operational incidents.
Pros of Cedar:
Cons of Cedar:
What is Cedar’s Pricing?
Cedar offers pricing based on authorization requests per month. Their most basic pricing retails at $0.00015/ req for the first 40 million requests.
NextAuth.js is an authentication and authorization solution for Next.js applications—it’s the natural choice for React developers using this framework. Unlike general purpose identity solutions, NextAuth.js integrates with Next.js’s server side rendering and API routes for a frictionless developer experience.
What makes NextAuth.js so valuable is it’s simplicity. With just a few lines of code, you can have secure authentication with OAuth providers, email/passwordless login, and database sessions. This reduces the time it takes to implement secure authentication while following security best practices.
For developers that care about flexibility in session handling and data storage, NextAuth.js is a strong candidate. The library can work with or without a database and supports multiple session strategies including JWT and database sessions. This means you can choose whatever option is best for your application architecture and performance requirements.
Pros of NextAuth.js:
Cons of NextAuth.js:
What is NextAuth.js’s Pricing?
NextAuth.js is a free, open-source community project.
.png)
ZITADEL is an open-source identity and access management platform purpose-built for multi-tenant SaaS products, blending developer-friendly APIs with enterprise features.
ZITADEL combines the simplicity of Auth0 with the open-source commitment of Keycloak. Unlike many identity solutions that focus on either developer experience or enterprise features, ZITADEL does both.
For organizations with multi-tenant architectures, ZITADEL is a strong solution. The platform is designed from the ground up to support B2B scenarios where you need to manage separate companies in one system. This makes it perfect for SaaS applications that serve multiple business customers with different user bases.
ZITADEL’s API-first design means every feature is programmable, so developers have full control over the identity experience. The platform also comes with ready-to-use UI components to speed up implementation without sacrificing customizability.
Pros of Zitadel:
Cons of Zitadel:
What is Zitadel’s Pricing?
Zitadel offers a free basic-tier for up to 100 daily active users. Upgrading to the pro-tier comes with a starting price point of $100/month for up to 25,000 daily active users, which can be adjusted for more users.
.png)
SuperTokens is an open-source authentication and session-management framework that lets you add secure login flows to web and mobile apps in minutes.
SuperTokens gives you both a great user experience and robust security. SuperTokens is particularly great for organizations the value a modular design. You get the core components you need for session management (and nothing more), along with optional modules that add social login, passwordless authentication, and user management capabilities. Developers can pick and choose the features they need, streamlining their implementation.
At the heart of SuperTokens are three main components: the Frontend SDK for user interfaces, the Backend SDK for API integration, and the SuperTokens Core—where security operations happen. This separation of duties gives you the flexibility to implement things your way, while ensuring security-critical operations are always handled the same way.
Pros of SuperTokens:
Cons of SuperTokens:
What is SuperTokens’s Pricing?
SuperTokens offers free and open-source self-hosting with no limit on MAUs. Their cloud version on the other hand retails at $0.02/MAU after 5,000 MAU.
.png)
Hanko is an open-source authentication solution that focuses on passwordless and passkey authentication. They have stemmed some traction as the industry gravitates away from traditional passwords towards alternative strategies. Unlike other authentication systems that treat passwordless as an add-on feature, Hanko is built around modern authentication methods.
Hanko supports FIDO2/WebAuthn for passkey authentication. This makes the platform compatible with Apple, Google, and Microsoft’s device push towards passkey adoption.
Hanko’s developer toolkit includes both backend services and frontend components that work together. The backend handles the complex cryptographic operations of passkey authentication, and the frontend components provide ready to use interfaces for user registration and login, streamlining implementation.
Pros of Hanko:
Cons of Hanko:
What is Hanko’s Pricing?
Hanko offers a beginner-tier for free, including 10,000 MAU and 2 projects. Upgrading to the pro-tier offers more features starting at $29/month.
.png)
Supabase Auth is an open-source authentication and authorization service tightly integrated with Postgres row-level security. It’s part of the Supabase platform, an open-source Firebase alternative. Unlike standalone auth solutions, Supabase Auth is deeply integrated with database access control so you can secure both auth and data access in one place.
Supabase Auth notably supports Row-Level Security (RLS) integration in Postgres. The system ties user identity directly to database permissions, so you can define access rules at the data level. This means you have a powerful authorization system enforced by the database itself, not separate application logic. Supabase Auth is ideal for Postgres-first organizations that want to use the database as the central authority on authentication, authorization, and data custody.
Supabase Auth supports multiple auth methods: email/password, magic links, OAuth providers, and phone auth. This means you can implement the auth experience that’s best for your app while keeping security and user management consistent.
Pros of Supabase Auth:
Cons of Supabase Auth:
What is Supabase Auth’s Pricing?
Supabase offers a free-tier with 50,000 MAU and limited specs. Upgrading to the higher-tiers offer better specs, with the next being the pro-tier retailing from $25/month.
As we’ve looked at the top 21 authorization systems and tools for 2025, some patterns emerge. Enterprise solutions are adding AI-driven security analytics and adaptive authentication, cloud providers are refining their native authorization systems with policy-based approaches, developer-friendly tools are making advanced authentication more accessible and open-source options provide flexibility without compromise.
When choosing an authorization system for your organization consider the following:
The space is changing fast with zero trust architectures, passwordless authentication, and fine-grained access control. By understanding what’s available today, you can build more secure, efficient, and user-friendly applications that protect your most valuable assets while enabling access for legitimate users.