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Okta vs Keycloak

A side-by-side comparison across pricing, deployment, integrations, compliance, and iam / sso-specific features. Descriptive comparison only — no recommendations.

4 min read Data verified: May 2026 Identity & Access Management
Okta
IAM / SSO
SSO ($2/user/mo), Adaptive SSO ($5), MFA ($3), Adaptive MFA ($6), Lifecycle… Management ($4), Identity Governance ($9); enterprise bundles negotiated
Paid
Visit official site →
Keycloak
IAM / SSO
Free (Apache 2.0) Red Hat build of Keycloak offers commercial support and binaries under Red Hat subscription pricing
Free / OSS
Visit official site →
$ Pricing & plans
5 dimensions
Pricing model
SSO ($2/user/mo), Adaptive SSO ($5), MFA ($3), Adaptive MFA ($6), Lifecycle…
Management ($4), Identity Governance ($9); enterprise bundles negotiated
Free (Apache 2.0)
Red Hat build of Keycloak offers commercial support and binaries under Red Hat subscription pricing
Pricing tier
Paid
Free / OSS
Free tier / trial
Free tier
30-day free trial; Okta Developer Edition free for prototyping (limits apply)
Free tier
Software permanently free; no trial needed
Volume discounts
Tiered breaks at 1,000, 5,000, 10,000+ users
multi-year commitments reduce per-user cost
Not applicable (free)
Red Hat subscriptions scale with hosts
Hidden costs
Adaptive features require higher-tier SKUs
some advanced features like Identity Governance and Privileged Access are separate products
Operational infrastructure (compute, database, monitoring), specialized…
engineering time, security hardening, version upgrade engineering
↗ Deployment & integrations
3 dimensions
Deployment
Cloud-only SaaS
identity-as-a-service model
Self-hosted — containers (Docker, Kubernetes via operator), VMs, bare metal
clustered for HA
Typical deployment time
Weeks for typical mid-market deployment
months for complex enterprise with custom integrations and lifecycle workflows
Hours for PoC
weeks for production-ready HA cluster with hardening and observability
Key integrations
7,500+ pre-built integrations in Okta Integration Network (OIN)
largest catalog among workforce IAM vendors; deep integrations with major SaaS, on-prem AD, HR systems
Standards-based
any SAML 2.0, OIDC, OAuth 2.0 application; protocol mappers for custom integrations; user federation with LDAP/Kerberos/AD
🔐 IAM / SSO-specific evaluation
7 dimensions
Authentication methods
SAML 2.0, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, WS-Federation, RADIUS (via Okta Access Gateway)
SCIM 2.0 for provisioning
SAML 2.0, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, Kerberos, X.509 client certificates
broad protocol support
MFA methods
Okta Verify push, TOTP, FIDO2/WebAuthn (security keys, platform…
authenticators), SMS, voice, biometrics, third-party (Duo, RSA)
TOTP (Google Authenticator, FreeOTP), WebAuthn/FIDO2 (security keys, passkeys),…
email/SMS via custom integration
Adaptive / risk-based auth
Okta Adaptive MFA uses contextual signals (device, location, network, behavior)…
for risk-based step-up; requires Adaptive MFA SKU
Conditional authentication flows can be customized
not as turnkey as commercial adaptive MFA products
Directory integrations
Active Directory, LDAP, HR-driven (Workday, BambooHR, UltiPro, SuccessFactors),…
Google Workspace; Universal Directory as system of record
LDAP, Active Directory, Kerberos via user federation
custom user storage SPI for proprietary stores
Lifecycle management (SCIM)
Okta Lifecycle Management automates provisioning/deprovisioning via SCIM 2.0
HR-driven joiner/mover/leaver workflows
SCIM 2.0 supported via extensions/community plugins
not as polished out-of-the-box as commercial IAM products
Privileged access
Okta Privileged Access (separately licensed) for server access; not full PAM platform
buyers needing deep PAM often pair Okta with CyberArk/BeyondTrust
Not a PAM platform
provides authentication, not privileged credential management
Session monitoring
Session policies and re-authentication enforcement
full session recording is not a core Okta feature
Session listing and forced logout per user/admin
audit logging via Event Listener SPI
✓ Compliance & certifications
1 dimension
Compliance certifications
FedRAMP High, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, GDPR, CSA STAR, IRAP
Software has no specific certifications
organizations deploy in their own compliant environments. Red Hat build inherits Red Hat platform certifications.
◧ Positioning
3 dimensions
Target deployment
Mid-market to enterprise workforce identity, organizations wanting broad SaaS integration
Developer-led organizations, self-hosted IAM, customer-facing applications…
(CIAM), avoiding per-user SaaS pricing
Strengths cited
Largest identity SaaS app catalog (7,500+ pre-built integrations), strong SCIM…
provisioning ecosystem, broadly recognized as a workforce identity leader, mature partner network
Free and open source under Apache 2.0, strong protocol support (SAML, OIDC,…
OAuth), CIAM-capable, broad customization, no per-user licensing
Where it fits less well
Higher-tier features (Adaptive MFA, Lifecycle Management) require Identity Engine tier
has experienced publicly disclosed security incidents that have been addressed; pricing positioned at premium tier
Requires operational expertise to run in production at scale
no SaaS-managed option from upstream project (Red Hat offers managed options separately)
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Methodology Comparison data synthesized from publicly available vendor documentation, MITRE Engenuity ATT&CK Evaluations, AV-TEST results, Gartner Peer Insights, G2/Capterra/TrustRadius reviews, anonymized transaction data (Vendr, CostBench, CheckThat.ai), and publicly reported pricing as of May 2026. defend.network is independent and has no commercial relationship with the vendors compared.