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Software Development · head to head

Factory vs Keycloak

Factory logo

Factory

Software Development

The autonomy stack for enterprise teams

From
$20/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Keycloak logo

Keycloak

Developer Tools

Open-source identity and access management server.

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Keycloak has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Factory business and Enterprise plans require direct sales contact for pricing; Keycloak requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Factory and Keycloak actually diverge.

Attributes where Factory and Keycloak differ
AttributeFactoryKeycloak
Starting price$20/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionopen-source
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebSelf-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API
CategorySoftware DevelopmentDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Factory

  • AI agent development and deploymentnot Keycloak
  • Multi-platform automationnot Keycloak
  • Background task executionnot Keycloak
  • Agent orchestrationnot Keycloak

Keycloak

  • Organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residencynot Factory
  • Companies with existing LDAP/Active Directory systems needing federated authenticationnot Factory
  • Open-source projects and communities requiring free IAM without licensing costsnot Factory
  • Enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisationnot Factory
  • Teams with sufficient operational expertise to manage infrastructurenot Factory

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Factory

  • Business and Enterprise plans require direct sales contact for pricing
  • Individual plans (Pro, Plus, Max) have limited feature details

Keycloak

  • Requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain
  • No managed cloud option provided by Red Hat; organisations must operate infrastructure themselves or use third-party distributions
  • Clustering and high-availability configurations require additional operational knowledge
  • Community support only; commercial support requires third-party vendors or distributions

Pricing, plan by plan

Factory

$20/month
  • Pro$20/month
    • Agent-native multi-platform experience
    • Desktop, CLI, and SDK access
    • Cloud and local background agents
  • Plus$100/month
    • Everything in Pro
    • Approximately 5x usage limits
    • Droid Computers for remote agents
  • Max$200/month
    • Everything in Plus
    • Approximately 10x usage limits
    • Early access to new features
  • Business$null/mo

Keycloak

Free
  • Open-sourceFree
    • Full platform functionality
    • Self-hosted deployment
    • Community support

Which should you pick?

Choose Factory if

Nothing in the data separates Factory from Keycloak on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Factory review

Choose Keycloak if

  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API.
Keycloak review

Questions people ask

Is Factory or Keycloak better?
Neither clearly leads. Factory starts at $20/month and Keycloak at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Factory or Keycloak?
Keycloak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $20/month for Factory and Free for Keycloak.
Does Factory or Keycloak run on more platforms?
Factory runs on Web. Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API.
Can I use Keycloak for free?
Yes. Keycloak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Factory starts at $20/month.
What is Factory best used for?
Factory is most often used for ai agent development and deployment, multi-platform automation, background task execution, agent orchestration. Of those, ai agent development and deployment and multi-platform automation are not what Keycloak is typically brought in for.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Factory: What is Factory.ai's pricing?

Factory.ai offers individual plans starting at USD$20 per month for Pro, USD$100 per month for Plus, and USD$200 per month for Max. Team plans including Business and Enterprise tiers are available at custom pricing based on the number of seats required.

Source
Keycloak: What protocols does Keycloak support?

Keycloak supports OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0 and SAML 2.0 protocols for authentication and authorisation.

Source
Factory: What are the usage limits for each plan?

The Pro plan is the baseline tier. Plus provides approximately 5 times the usage limits of Pro, while Max provides approximately 10 times the usage limits of Pro. Exact usage limits are not specified on the pricing page.

Source
Keycloak: Can Keycloak integrate with existing user directories?

Yes. Keycloak supports user federation with LDAP and Active Directory systems, allowing organisations to leverage existing user directories.

Source
Factory: What AI models are included with Factory.ai?

All Factory.ai plans include access to GPT-5, Claude Opus and Sonnet, Google Gemini, and open-weight models. Business and Enterprise plans also include dedicated compute with partitioned inference and options for on-premise deployment.

Source
Keycloak: Is Keycloak free?

Yes. Keycloak is fully open-source and free to deploy and use. No licensing fees are required.

Source
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