Built own auth server after missing Keycloak flow features → custom in-house auth server
“some missing functionality that needs to be implemented very often, like "Accept ToS before profile is created”
One person says they left Keycloak; what else pushes users away, and what its category peers report
Friction holds 23 sourced reports about Keycloak (keycloak.org) from 65 public source threads (as of 2026-10-15); only 1 of them says the author left. This page shows that report, what its users say pushes them away, and the problem profile of authentik.
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Where Keycloak users say they went
Switching reports that name a destination. A count is the number of reports naming it, not a market share: Friction only holds what people say in public.
| Named alternative | Reports naming it | Newest report |
|---|---|---|
| A self-built or in-house tool | 2 | 2023 |
| Ory | 1 | 2023 |
The reports of leaving
What pushes people away from Keycloak
The most-reported open problems, worst severity first. Each links to the item with its source.
Requests drop between Apache and Keycloak until connection settings are changed · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work · 2 people
“if you have Keycloak running behind Apache as a reverse proxy, I've had requests between those two randomly drop”
Must build an optimized image or face long startup in containers · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work · 2 people
“I really don't want to maintain a CI Pipeline to deploy it .. but you're kinda forced to with how they've designed their docker image”
Disabling a user leaves their sessions active · Permissions & security · Blocks work
“When an admin disables a user (e.g., via the admin console), the user's active sessions remain open”
Keycloak clustering on AWS ECS was a prolonged struggle · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work
“it was unholy war for 1,000 years getting it to cluster properly”
Setting up Keycloak requires hard-won knowledge that is slow to acquire · Setup & onboarding · Annoyance · 5 people
“there's a lot of knowledge of how to set things up that takes time and is not readily acquired”
See all 18 themes for Keycloak
Other authentication and identity tools on Friction, and what their users struggle with
Switching trades one set of problems for another. The same evidence, for each tool Friction covers in this category:
authentik
13 reports · 67 source threads · most-discussed area: Reliability & bugs
- Outpost unhealthy and apps return 500 after 2025.12.2 upgrade
- Fresh docker-compose install: initial setup page not found, hours lost
- Domain-level forward auth fails with external outposts (400)
Keycloak vs authentik: side by side · authentik alternatives
Counts and reports reflect people who post in public (developers and technical buyers are over-represented). A tool with fewer reports is not a better tool; it may only be discussed less. How the data is built.