Ory

Ory takes a Unix-philosophy approach to identity: small, focused, composable services instead of one monolithic platform. Kratos handles user identities and self-service flows, Hydra is a certified OAuth2/OIDC server, Oathkeeper is a zero-trust access proxy, and Keto is a Zanzibar-inspired authorization engine for RBAC, ABAC, and ReBAC. All core projects are Apache 2.0 licensed and self-hostable, with Ory Network as the managed cloud running the same engines.

Founded in 2019 by Thomas Aidan Curran, Ory raised a $22.5M Series A in 2021 led by Insight Partners. Vendor materials claim over two billion reported identities secured across its open-source, enterprise-licensed, and cloud offerings, with 30,000+ GitHub stars and 40M+ Docker pulls cited historically. The company reports ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications for the Ory Network.

The modularity is the selling point and the tax: you assemble only what you need, but composing several services takes more architecture work than adopting a single integrated CIAM product. Enterprise SSO connections are tier-gated on the managed cloud, and identity figures from vendor materials should be treated as marketing until independently verified.

Self-host via Docker or Helm charts, or create a project on Ory Network.