Keymate vs Okta: a self-hosted Okta alternative built on Keycloak
Keymate is a self-hosted Okta alternative for organizations that must run identity and authorization on their own infrastructure. Every request is decided against policies and recorded, and you can require an approver before any policy change reaches production. Okta is the broader cloud suite, and you can run both: Okta signs people in, and Keymate decides and records each request.
What is Okta?
Okta is an identity suite delivered as a cloud service run by Okta, including Okta for Government High, which holds FedRAMP High authorization. It sells Workforce Identity for employees and Okta Customer Identity for the customers of a business. Its products include Universal Directory, single sign-on, Adaptive MFA, Okta Identity Governance, Okta Privileged Access and Fine Grained Authorization, a relationship-based service sold under the Auth0 brand, while Okta Access Gateway is the part that runs in your own environment.
Keymate vs Okta at a glance, module by module
The second column names the stronger product in each area.
| Area | Stronger here | Okta | Keymate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity | Okta | Universal Directory, HR-driven lifecycle, partner access | Organizations with own admins; LDAP, AD, API-based connectors |
| Authentication | Okta | Adaptive MFA, FastPass, in-session risk checks | OIDC and SAML sign-on, step-up MFA |
| Authorization | Keymate, narrowly | Roles, OAuth scopes, Fine Grained Authorization (managed) | Role, attribute, policy, relationship and risk models combined, decided on your infrastructure |
| Enforcement | Keymate | Okta Access Gateway for older web apps; OAuth for APIs | Access Gateway, Kong, APISIX, mesh, Kafka, SDKs |
| Authorization Governance | Keymate | Access reviews; Access Testing Tool simulation | Optional approval, simulation, rollback, versioned decisions |
| Identity Governance | Okta | Requests, certifications, separation of duties | Joiners, movers and leavers from HR events; access reviews on the roadmap |
| Deployment | Keymate, if self-hosted is required | Okta-run cloud, FedRAMP High; Okta Access Gateway self-hosted | Self-hosted, air-gapped (Enterprise); no managed service |
| Licensing | Comparable | Per user, per month; no free Workforce tier | Free edition to 100 users; then per user and module |
| Ecosystem and integrations | Okta | 8,000+ prebuilt integrations | OIDC and SAML federation, custom connectors |
- Area
- Identity
- Stronger here
- Okta
- Okta
- Universal Directory, HR-driven lifecycle, partner access
- Keymate
- Organizations with own admins; LDAP, AD, API-based connectors
- Area
- Authentication
- Stronger here
- Okta
- Okta
- Adaptive MFA, FastPass, in-session risk checks
- Keymate
- OIDC and SAML sign-on, step-up MFA
- Area
- Authorization
- Stronger here
- Keymate, narrowly
- Okta
- Roles, OAuth scopes, Fine Grained Authorization (managed)
- Keymate
- Role, attribute, policy, relationship and risk models combined, decided on your infrastructure
- Area
- Enforcement
- Stronger here
- Keymate
- Okta
- Okta Access Gateway for older web apps; OAuth for APIs
- Keymate
- Access Gateway, Kong, APISIX, mesh, Kafka, SDKs
- Area
- Authorization Governance
- Stronger here
- Keymate
- Okta
- Access reviews; Access Testing Tool simulation
- Keymate
- Optional approval, simulation, rollback, versioned decisions
- Area
- Identity Governance
- Stronger here
- Okta
- Okta
- Requests, certifications, separation of duties
- Keymate
- Joiners, movers and leavers from HR events; access reviews on the roadmap
- Area
- Deployment
- Stronger here
- Keymate, if self-hosted is required
- Okta
- Okta-run cloud, FedRAMP High; Okta Access Gateway self-hosted
- Keymate
- Self-hosted, air-gapped (Enterprise); no managed service
- Area
- Licensing
- Stronger here
- Comparable
- Okta
- Per user, per month; no free Workforce tier
- Keymate
- Free edition to 100 users; then per user and module
- Area
- Ecosystem and integrations
- Stronger here
- Okta
- Okta
- 8,000+ prebuilt integrations
- Keymate
- OIDC and SAML federation, custom connectors
Both products have fine-grained authorization, which is why that row is close. They differ in which models they combine and where the decision point runs.
Choose Okta when you want a managed cloud service, prebuilt HR connectors, access certification and more than 8,000 prebuilt integrations today.
Choose Keymate when the whole platform must run on your infrastructure, and every request needs a decision recorded with its policy version.
Every capability we compared
We compare every vendor against the same list of capabilities, grouped by Keymate's modules, so you can read this page next to our Microsoft Entra ID and Ping Identity pages. Each Okta cell names the Okta product that carries the capability. "Not documented" means the Okta pages we checked do not mention it, not that Okta lacks it. The list includes the rows where Okta is stronger.
| Capability | Okta | Keymate |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | ||
| User management & self-service | Yes: Universal Directory | Yes |
| Multi-tenant organizations / B2B tenancy | Partial: Secure Partner Access for partners and contractors | Yes: organizations with their own administrators |
| Delegated administration | Yes: custom admin roles and resource sets | Yes: scoped administrators |
| User federation (LDAP / Active Directory) | Yes: Universal Directory with the Okta AD agent and LDAP sources | Yes |
| Social & enterprise IdP brokering | Yes: social and third-party identity providers with IdP Discovery | Yes: OIDC and SAML identity providers |
| HR-driven identity lifecycle (JML) | Yes: Lifecycle Management, HR systems such as Workday as the source | Yes: API-based connectors for your HR system |
| SCIM provisioning | Yes: SCIM 2.0 provisioning (Okta Integration Network and custom apps) | Not yet |
| Authentication | ||
| SSO (OIDC, OAuth 2.1, SAML) | Yes: single sign-on in Workforce Identity | Yes: OIDC and SAML |
| MFA & step-up | Yes: Adaptive MFA | Yes: MFA with step-up |
| Passkeys / passwordless | Yes: Passkey (FIDO2 WebAuthn) authenticator | Yes: passkeys |
| Adaptive / risk-based access | Yes: Adaptive MFA (risk-based) | Yes: risk-based MFA |
| Brute-force & account protection | Yes: ThreatInsight, before authentication | Yes: brute-force detection and lockout |
| Session management & token revocation | Yes: Universal Logout (Identity Threat Protection) | Yes: token introspection and revocation |
| Login theming & localization | Yes: brands, themes and custom domains | Yes: login themes and localized flows |
| Authorization | ||
| RBAC | Yes: role-based access | Yes |
| ABAC / policy conditions | Yes: conditions in sign-in policies and API Access Management policies | Yes |
| ReBAC (relationship-based) | Yes: Fine Grained Authorization (Auth0 brand) | Yes |
| Central policy engine (PBAC) for apps & APIs | Yes: Fine Grained Authorization centralizes permission checks | Yes: one set of policies combining role, attribute, policy, relationship and risk models |
| Risk-adaptive authorization | Yes: Identity Threat Protection, in-session risk and Shared Signals | Yes |
| Fine-grained PDP for APIs | Yes: API Access Management (OAuth policies by app, user context and group) | Yes |
| Per-request decisioning | Yes: Fine Grained Authorization (context-aware checks per request) | Yes: every request decided |
| Enforcement | ||
| Gateway enforcement, no app code changes | Partial: Okta Access Gateway for older web apps (header-based sign-in, path-level rules) | Yes: Access Gateway, Kong and APISIX plugins, Istio and Envoy, Kafka event streams |
| Enforcement SDKs | Yes: Fine Grained Authorization SDKs (Node.js, Go, .NET, Python, Java) | Yes: TypeScript, Java and .NET SDKs |
| Authorization Governance | ||
| Approval workflow on policy changes | Not documented | Yes (optional) |
| Policy versioning & rollback | Not documented | Yes |
| Decision explainability (why denied) | Partial: Access Testing Tool lists the policies and rules that matched | Yes: the policy and condition behind each allow and deny |
| Policy change simulation | Partial: Access Testing Tool simulates access requests against sign-in, session and enrollment policies | Yes: against past decisions |
| Decision evidence & auditor reports | Yes: Okta Identity Governance compliance reporting | Yes: decision records with the policy version |
| Real-time decision observability | Yes: System Log events streamed in near real time | Yes: decision stream with OpenTelemetry export |
| Audit event logging & SIEM export | Yes: log streaming to Amazon EventBridge and Splunk Cloud | Yes: OpenTelemetry audit pipeline |
| Identity Governance | ||
| Access certification campaigns | Yes: Okta Identity Governance | Not yet |
| Segregation of duties (SoD) | Yes: Okta Identity Governance separation-of-duties rules | Not yet |
| End-user access request catalog | Yes: Okta Identity Governance self-service access requests | Not yet |
| Deployment and licensing | ||
| Self-hosted on your infrastructure | Partial: Okta Access Gateway only | Yes: Kubernetes on your infrastructure |
| Vendor-managed SaaS | Yes: Okta-run cloud service, including Okta for Government High (FedRAMP High) | No managed service today |
| Air-gapped deployment | Not documented | Yes (Enterprise) |
| High availability | Yes: 99.99% 12-month availability published on trust.okta.com | Yes (Enterprise) |
| Pricing unit | Per user, per month, billed annually (Workforce Identity) | Per user and per module, above 100 registered users |
| Free edition | Developer plan for non-production use (Okta Customer Identity); Workforce Identity offers a trial instead | Free edition up to 100 registered users |
| Trial motion | 30-day trial | Free edition, no time limit |
| Published pricing | Yes: entry prices on Okta's pricing page | No figures at launch |
Okta facts last checked 17 and 20 October 2026, from Okta's public pages (okta.com, help.okta.com, developer.okta.com, trust.okta.com, auth0.com and docs.fga.dev) and the OpenID Foundation's IPSIE page. Keymate facts are from keymate.io. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it. Product names are trademarks of their owners.
Where Okta is stronger
If one of the items below is the reason you are evaluating, Okta is the better fit for that part. Several of them are products Keymate does not offer.
Identity lifecycle.
Universal Directory, Lifecycle Management and Secure Partner Access ship today. Keymate automates the lifecycle from HR events through API-based connectors set up per HR system, with no ready-made catalog.
Sign-in protection.
Risk-based Adaptive MFA, FastPass phishing-resistant sign-in and Identity Threat Protection during the session. At sign-in, Keymate offers no advantage over Okta.
Identity governance.
Okta Identity Governance runs access requests, certifications, separation of duties and lifecycle today. Keymate's Identity Governance handles joiners, movers and leavers and runs none of the first three today.
Integrations and standards work.
Okta has more than 8,000 prebuilt integrations in the Okta Integration Network and uses Shared Signals in Identity Threat Protection. An Okta engineer co-chairs the OpenID Foundation's IPSIE working group.
Privileged access.
Okta Privileged Access vaults credentials and records privileged SSH and RDP sessions. Keymate is not a privileged-access product.
Customer identity.
Okta Customer Identity serves the customers of a business. Keymate serves employees, customers and partners, but it is not a consumer identity platform for public sign-up at consumer scale.
Posture and threat detection.
Okta offers Identity Security Posture Management, which scans human and non-human identities, and Identity Threat Protection. Keymate offers neither.
AI-agent identity.
Okta discovers and registers AI agents, governs their access with certification campaigns, and revokes it with a kill switch. Keymate's work on agents as governed identities is on the Roadmap.
A service run for you.
Okta operates the service, including Okta for Government High with FedRAMP High authorization. Keymate has no managed service today; it is self-hosted.
Published prices.
Okta publishes its entry prices on its pricing page. Keymate's pricing page carries no figures at launch.
Why Keymate lists everything Keymate does not do.
Where Keymate is stronger
The whole platform runs on your infrastructure.
Identity, sign-in, the decision point, the admin console and the evidence store all run on your Kubernetes, air-gapped if you need it (Enterprise). Okta is a cloud service, and Okta Access Gateway is the part that runs in your own environment.
Enforcement per request, under one set of policies.
The Access Gateway, an API gateway plugin or a service mesh filter asks the decision point about every request before it reaches the application, with no code change. Each decision is per action and resource. Okta Access Gateway extends sign-in to older applications with path-level rules. Authorization shows how each route works.
Governed policy changes.
A policy change can be held for an approver before it reaches production. A change can be simulated against past decisions, and every version is kept for rollback. Every allow and deny is recorded with the policy version and any approval behind it. Authorization Governance shows the cycle.
Several authorization models in one decision point.
Role, attribute, policy, relationship and risk-adaptive rules combine in one set of policies. Okta's Fine Grained Authorization is relationship-based.
The reason behind every decision is recorded.
For each allow or deny, Keymate records which policy decided and which condition was met or missed. An administrator answering "why was I denied?" reads it in the decision record.
Evidence stays on your infrastructure.
Decision records are retained and reproducible, ready for your DORA and NIS2 conversations. Access evidence for audits shows what an auditor receives.
What this page does not claim
- Access certification, separation of duties and privileged access are Okta's today, not Keymate's. Keymate is not a privileged-access product.
- No benchmark, performance or availability figures for Keymate, and no test results for either product.
- No claim that Okta lacks a capability its pages do not mention. "Not documented" means the Okta pages we checked do not mention it.
Okta pricing model and Keymate's free edition
Okta pricing is per user for its workforce products. Prices are published per user, per month, billed annually with an annual contract minimum. The two upper tiers are quoted on request, and most products are sold as add-ons. Okta offers a 30-day trial and no free Workforce tier. Okta Customer Identity starts from a monthly base platform fee with usage-based add-ons such as monthly active users. Its only free plan is a developer plan for non-production use. Current figures are on Okta's pricing page.
Keymate has a free edition, Community, with every module for up to 100 registered users. Above 100 users, every module is paid, priced per user and per module. The pricing page explains the two editions, Community and Enterprise.
Running Okta and Keymate together
You can keep Okta signing people in and add Keymate to decide each request. Keymate connects to Okta over OIDC or SAML as an external identity provider, so users keep the login they know. Keymate's policies make the decision, and the Access Gateway or another enforcement point acts on it.
If you run Okta Identity Governance, it keeps reviewing who holds which access; Keymate decides and records what each request may do with that access.
If you later want sign-in on Keymate as well, keep what you have: federate over OIDC and SAML, run Keymate in parallel, and cut over when you're ready. Parallel Run describes the steps.
Keycloak vs Okta, and where Keymate fits
Keycloak vs Okta is a choice between running Keycloak yourself and buying a service someone else runs. Keycloak is a free, open-source identity and access management (IAM) project under the Apache License 2.0. It covers single sign-on, OIDC, OAuth 2.0, SAML, federation, MFA and built-in authorization services. Teams that choose it host, run, upgrade and patch it themselves. Okta is a cloud service run by Okta.
Keymate is built on Keycloak, so the identity foundation is the same. If you run Keycloak today, your realms, clients and flows move into Keymate with Keycloak's realm export and import, without being rebuilt. Keymate adds a decision point that its enforcement points ask on every request, enforcement in the request path, and governed policy changes (optional approval, simulation and rollback). It comes as one product, with its own support in the Enterprise plan. Keymate vs Keycloak shows what Keymate adds, module by module.
Other Okta alternatives
Microsoft Entra ID.
Microsoft's cloud identity service, formerly Azure Active Directory. Its tiers come with Microsoft 365 plans: E3 includes P1, and E5 includes P2. Keymate vs Microsoft Entra ID
Ping Identity.
Sells both a vendor-managed cloud (PingOne) and self-managed software, including PingFederate, PingAccess and PingAuthorize. Keymate vs Ping Identity
Keycloak.
A free, open-source IAM project under the Apache License 2.0, for teams ready to run, upgrade and patch it themselves. Keymate is built on it. See the Keycloak card
Red Hat build of Keycloak.
Red Hat's commercially supported build of Keycloak with a published support lifecycle. You host and operate it yourself, on OpenShift or RHEL. See the Red Hat build of Keycloak card
Zitadel.
An open-source identity platform written in Go with built-in multi-tenancy. You can host it yourself or use Zitadel's managed cloud. See the Zitadel card
Keymate's IAM platform comparison puts eleven products side by side, with strengths and limits for each.
Questions
What is a good self-hosted Okta alternative?
Check two things: every component runs on your own infrastructure, and you know who runs upgrades and patches. Keymate runs every component on your Kubernetes, air-gapped if you need it (Enterprise), reports nothing back to us, and has support in the Enterprise plan. Keycloak, the open-source IAM project Keymate is built on, also runs self-hosted if you are ready to run, upgrade and patch it yourself. Okta is a cloud service; only its Access Gateway runs in your own environment.
Keycloak vs Okta: what is the difference?
Keycloak is a free, open-source IAM project you host and operate yourself. Okta is a cloud service that Okta runs, with a broader suite around sign-in, governance and integrations. Keymate is built on Keycloak and adds a decision point that is asked about every request, enforcement of each decision, and governed policy changes (optional approval, simulation and rollback), with support in the Enterprise plan.
Is there an Okta alternative for banks?
Look for three things: the whole platform in the bank's own data center, air-gapped support, and every access decision recorded for DORA and NIS2. Keymate meets all three: identity, sign-in, the decision point, the admin console and the audit evidence run on Kubernetes with no cloud dependency, air-gapped on the Enterprise plan, and every decision is recorded with the policy version and any approval behind it. A bank can also keep its current identity provider and add Keymate for authorization only.
How does Okta pricing work?
Okta publishes Workforce prices per user, per month, billed annually with an annual contract minimum, quotes its two upper tiers, and sells most products as add-ons; there is a 30-day trial and no free Workforce tier. Okta Customer Identity starts from a monthly base platform fee with usage-based add-ons such as monthly active users. Keymate has a free edition, Community, with every module for up to 100 registered users. Above 100 users, every module is paid, priced per user and per module.
How does Keymate compare to Okta Workforce Identity, capability by capability?
Both cover single sign-on, MFA, passkeys, role- and relationship-based authorization and audit export. Okta is stronger in prebuilt HR connectors, access certification, access requests and as a managed cloud service. Keymate runs the whole platform on your infrastructure, enforces decisions in the request path and records each one with its policy version. The full list shows all 41 rows.
Who are Okta's competitors?
Products buyers weigh against Okta include Microsoft Entra ID, Ping Identity and Keycloak, and Keymate where the platform must be self-hosted. Other Okta alternatives on this page gives each in one line, and Keymate's IAM platform comparison sets eleven IAM products side by side, including these, with strengths and limits for each.
Is Keymate an open source Okta alternative?
No. Keymate has a free edition under its own license, and it is not open source. Keycloak, the identity foundation Keymate is built on, is open source under the Apache License 2.0, and our engineers contribute to it upstream; the public record lists each change.