authentik vs Keycloak: what their users struggle with
Not a verdict and not a star rating: the problems users of authentik and Keycloak describe in public, side by side, each one linked to its source (as of 2026-10-15).
Get started free with your email Open authentik on Friction
| authentik | Keycloak | |
|---|---|---|
| Recent reports compared | 13 | 21 |
| Themes compared | 13 | 16 |
| Public source threads | 67 | 65 |
| Pain points | 10 | 15 |
| Feature requests | 2 | 3 |
| Workarounds | 0 | 3 |
| Switching reasons | 1 | 0 |
| Reports rated “Causes churn” | 1 | 0 |
Every count in this table is of open reports in the recent window (authentik since 2022-10, Keycloak since 2023-10); older and fixed reports are not counted. The counts measure how much public discussion exists for each product, not which is better: a popular tool collects more reports.
Problems mostly raised about authentik
- Domain-level forward auth fails with external outposts (400) · Reliability & bugs · Annoyance
- Outpost unhealthy and apps return 500 after 2025.12.2 upgrade · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work
- WebAuthn login loops on security key after upgrade to 2026.5.4 · Reliability & bugs · Annoyance
- LDAP provider lacks Samba schema for Synology NAS joining · Integrations · Annoyance
- Password manager fails to detect fields in compatibility mode · UI & usability · Annoyance
Problems mostly raised about Keycloak
- Requests drop between Apache and Keycloak until connection settings are changed · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work
- Keycloak clustering on AWS ECS was a prolonged struggle · Self-hosting & upgrades · Blocks work
- Disabling a user leaves their sessions active · Permissions & security · Blocks work
- Token exchange drops requested scopes since Keycloak 24 · Reliability & bugs · Blocks work
- Organization group roles are missing from standard token claims · Integrations · Annoyance
Go further
Open authentik and Keycloak in the compare tool to filter by area and severity, authentik alternatives, Keycloak alternatives, or the state of authentication and identity.
How the data is built. A theme is a group of reports about the same problem; unique means not matched to a theme on the other product.