Keycloak vs ZITADEL
Which one do AI engines recommend, and how do they differ on price, fit and features?
The short answer
Keycloak is the stronger AI pick in Identity & Access Management: it has a visibility score of 5.6 versus 1.3 for ZITADEL, and ranks ahead in 100% of the answers that name both.
Choose Keycloak if…
- You want the brand AI engines rank higher (5.6 vs 1.3)
- Free and open-source software
- Strong flexibility and customization for technical teams
- Top pick as a self-hosted option
Choose ZITADEL if…
- AI answers describe it more positively (83% vs 33% positive)
- You need a self-hosted or on-premises option
- You need ISO/IEC 27001:2022 or SOC 2 Type II coverage
- Free cloud tier with core features like MFA and OIDC
AI visibility side by side
Latest weekly run · Nov 3
| Metric | Keycloak | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Visibility score | 5.6% | 1.3% |
| Change vs last week | down−0.3% | up+0.5% |
| Rank in Identity & Access Management | #15 | #27 |
| Share of voice | 2.1% | 0.4% |
| Mentions this run | 7 | 1 |
| Positive in AI answers | 33% | 83% |
The stronger value in each row is marked with a ✓.
Visibility score trend
Weekly runs over the last 60 days
Keycloak −0.7000000000000002pp · ZITADEL −1.8pp over 1 weekly runs.
Engine by engine
Keycloak leads on 2 of 3 engines
Head to head in AI answers
1 engine answers name both brands
| Prompt | Engine | Keycloak | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|---|
| Is there a free identity and access management platform for small teams? | AI Mode | #2 | #3 |
Features, pricing & fit
| Dimension | Keycloak | ZITADEL |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | — | Usage-based |
| Entry price | — | Free; paid from $100 / mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Deployment | Self-hosted; ships as a single lightweight container image, with clustering for scalability and availability | Cloud and self-hosted |
| Compliance | — | ISO/IEC 27001:2022, SOC 2 Type II |
| Support | Community support via GitHub Discussions, Commercial support via Red Hat build of Keycloak | Discord community, GitHub, Documentation, Technical Account Manager (Enterprise) |
| Founded | 2014 | 2020 |
| Headquarters | — | San Francisco, CA, United States |
| Employees | — | 11–50 |
| Funding | — | Series A · $16M raised |
| Best for | Teams that want to self-host standards-based single sign-on and identity brokering for their applications | Developers building applications that need authentication for consumers, businesses or employees, including multi-tenant B2B apps. |
Plans side by side
Keycloak
Pricing not available.
Pros and cons
Themes from the AI answers that mention each brand
Keycloak
- Free and open-source software
- Strong flexibility and customization for technical teams
- Top pick as a self-hosted option
- Backed by Red Hat and community; popular open-source IAM tool
- Supports SAML, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect
- Team must handle hosting, upgrades, backups, and security
- Less operational simplicity than managed alternatives
ZITADEL
- Free cloud tier with core features like MFA and OIDC
- Cloud-native, open-source IAM with strong multi-tenancy and audit logging
- Clear usage limits and published monthly pricing
- Good for developer-focused IAM
- Cloud-based IAM without managing infrastructure
Data collected ·ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Mode·coverage 98.8%·next run
Cite as: SlateIndex, “Keycloak vs ZITADEL”, https://slateindex.ai/compare/keycloak-vs-zitadel, data of Nov 3, 2026. Licence: CC BY 4.0.