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Customer identity and access management · November 2026 Edition

WorkOS AuthKit vs Keycloak

Five of fourteen models named WorkOS AuthKit first on the direct prompt; zero named Keycloak. WorkOS AuthKit was named by twelve of the fourteen models and Keycloak by ten and WorkOS AuthKit carries 29 labels and Keycloak 15, so the shares are not directly comparable.

WorkOS AuthKit

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

Keycloak

accepted challenger

Named in five categories this edition.

First-choice share13%4%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate10%20%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#7A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels2915A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, WorkOS AuthKit reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Frontegg was named alongside these two in twelve of the fourteen direct answers. Auth0 vs WorkOS AuthKit · Auth0 vs Keycloak · WorkOS AuthKit vs Frontegg

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the customer identity and access management page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
WorkOS AuthKitFirst choices, of fourteen modelsKeycloak
Direct50
Paraphrase20
Comparative001 against Keycloak
Budget-constrained02
Scale-constrained00
Negative003 against WorkOS AuthKit · 2 against Keycloak
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where WorkOS AuthKit and Keycloak stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
WorkOS AuthKit Keycloak first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, WorkOS AuthKit on the left and Keycloak on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where WorkOS AuthKit and Keycloak stood in it.

WorkOS AuthKit first, Keycloak not the choice

5 of 14 modelsKeycloak was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.
Gemini 3.5 FlashWorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Clerk, Descope, Frontegg, Stytch
Grok 4.20WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Frontegg, Stytch
Kimi K2WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Frontegg, Stytch
GPT-6 LunaWorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Stytch
Muse Glimmer 30BKinde, WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Frontegg, Okta, OneLogin

Neither was the first choice, one was named

3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Perplexity SonarAuth0 alternatives: Amazon Cognito, Frontegg, FusionAuth, Microsoft Entra External ID, WorkOS AuthKit
DeepSeek V4 FlashFrontegg alternatives: Descope, Kinde, WorkOS AuthKit
Llama 4 MaverickAuth0 alternatives: IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, WSO2 Identity Server, WorkOS AuthKit

Neither was named

6 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Auth0 alternatives: Frontegg, OneLogin, The OneWelcome Identity Platform
GPT-5.4 miniAuth0 alternatives: Frontegg, Ping Identity
Mistral SmallAuth0 alternatives: Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID
Qwen 3.7 FlashFrontegg alternatives: Auth0, Descope, Microsoft Entra External ID, Stytch
GLM 4.7 FlashXAuth0 alternatives: Amazon Cognito, Descope, Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, SSOJet, Stytch, Transmit Security
MiniMax M2.5OneLogin alternatives: Frontegg, LoginRadius, SSOJet

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
WorkOS AuthKit leads by seventeen points.
WorkOS AuthKit17%#2 of 15
Keycloak0%#14 of 15
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
WorkOS AuthKit leads by nine points.
WorkOS AuthKit13%#2 of 16
Keycloak4%#7 of 16
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
WorkOS AuthKit leads by two points.
WorkOS AuthKit2%#7 of 13
Keycloak0%#– of 13
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about WorkOS AuthKit

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.

“WorkOS documented a major service disruption on July 16, 2026 with elevated latency, timeouts, and 5xxs across AuthKit, SSO, and user-management flows.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“a massive drop in recommendation acceptance for platforms like WorkOS (falling from 22% to 4%)... such a sharp deviation warrants close scrutiny” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Modern developer-first options with good UX, but verify their long-term viability and security maturity” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“WorkOS stands out as the best customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform for most mid-market B2B companies” Grok 4.20 · direct prompt · first choice
“Best Overall for Modern B2B SaaS: WorkOS ... is often the top recommendation.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“WorkOS – *Best Overall for Enterprise Readiness & Developer Experience*” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice

What the models said about Keycloak

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of four in this category shown.

“High Operational Burden: Open-source platforms like Keycloak are feature-complete... you assume 100% of the responsibility for hosting” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Even popular tools like Keycloak (which has seen rising popularity) require significant engineering effort to maintain.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“FusionAuth and Keycloak stand out because they offer free self-hosted options with no per-user fees” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Lowest cash spend, higher engineering effort: Keycloak” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.