What is Ory Kratos used for?

Ory Kratos is listed as a Developer Tools tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

How do I get started with Ory Kratos?

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

What license does Ory Kratos use?

Ory Kratos is listed under the Apache-2.0 license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Is Ory Kratos ready for production use?

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

Is Ory Kratos an alternative to Okta?

Ory Kratos is listed as an alternative to Okta. Compare the core workflow, deployment model, integrations, and licensing against your must-have requirements before switching.

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Ory Kratos

Cloud-native headless identity and user management server written in Go with multi-factor authentication and self-service flows.

View on GitHub Visit website

LicenseApache-2.0

GitHub stars13.8k

Last commit1 months ago

Tags6 topics

GoAuthenticationUser ManagementIdentity ManagementCloud NativeSecurity

Overview

Why consider Ory Kratos?

Ory Kratos is an API-first open-source identity and user management system that provides self-service registration, login, multi-factor authentication, and profile management for cloud applications without forcing a proprietary UI.

Guided learning

Learn Ory Kratos by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

2 min read 3 sections

In this guide3 sections

Architectural Design and Headless Identity

Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system for cloud native applications. It centralizes login, registration, recovery, verification, and profile management flows so your services consume them instead of reimplementing them. Rather than forcing application teams into proprietary UI templates, the software decouples business authentication flows from presentation components.

Because authentication logic runs as a standalone microservice, backend systems interact directly with its self-service endpoints. Ory Kratos is headless: it exposes APIs that your application consumes and does not ship a built-in login page. You build the UI in whatever framework you use.

Core Identity Workflows and Protocols

Ory Kratos handles identity: who the user is. Kratos manages credentials, login flows, registration, MFA, and sessions. Ory Hydra handles delegation: issuing OAuth 2.0 access tokens and OpenID Connect ID tokens to third-party applications.

Ory Kratos supports password-based login, social login via any OpenID Connect provider (Google, GitHub, Apple, Facebook, and 15+ preconfigured providers), TOTP, WebAuthn/FIDO2 (YubiKey, FaceID, TouchID, Windows Hello), passkeys for passwordless login, SMS OTP, email OTP, magic links, and lookup/recovery codes.

Infrastructure Setup

Configure databases such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, and CockroachDB.

yaml

1version: v0.13.0

3dsn: memory

5serve:

6 public:

7 base_url: http://127.0.0.1:4433/

8 cors:

9 enabled: true

10 admin:

11 base_url: http://kratos:4434/

13selfservice:

14 default_browser_return_url: http://127.0.0.1:4455/welcome

15 allowed_return_urls:

16 - http://127.0.0.1:4455

18 methods:

19 password:

20 enabled: true

The project is distributed under the Apache License Version 2.0.

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