Is Keycloak or Koyeb better?

Neither clearly leads. Keycloak starts at Free and Koyeb at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Keycloak or Koyeb?

Keycloak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Keycloak and $29/month for Koyeb.

Does Keycloak or Koyeb run on more platforms?

Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API. Koyeb runs on Web, CLI, API.

Can I use Keycloak for free?

Yes. Keycloak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Koyeb starts at $29/month.

What is Keycloak best used for?

Keycloak is most often used for organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency, companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication, open-source projects and communities requiring free iam without licensing costs, enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisation. Of those, organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency and companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication are not what Koyeb is typically brought in for.

What can Keycloak do that Koyeb cannot?

Koyeb covers Serverless containers, GPU support, Global distribution, Multi-protocol support.

Developer Tools · head to head

Keycloak vs Koyeb

Keycloak

Developer Tools

Open-source identity and access management server.

From: Free
Free plan: Yes

Full review Website

Koyeb

Cloud

High-performance serverless infrastructure for APIs, inference, and databases

From: $29/month
Free plan: No

Full review Website

The short version

Only Keycloak has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Keycloak requires self-hosted deployment and operational expertise to install, configure and maintain; Koyeb pricing starts at $29/month with additional compute costs
Prices and features above were last checked on 29 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Keycloak and Koyeb actually diverge.

Attributes where Keycloak and Koyeb differ
Attribute	Keycloak	Koyeb
Starting price	Free	$29/month
Pricing model	open-source	Unknown
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API	Web, CLI, API
Category	Developer Tools	Cloud

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

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Keycloak

Nothing recorded that Koyeb does not also cover.

Only in Koyeb

Serverless containers
GPU support
Global distribution
Multi-protocol support
Serverless Postgres
Zero-downtime deployments

What people use each for

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

Keycloak

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

Koyeb

Deploying AI inference models globally with GPU accelerationnot Keycloak
Building SaaS platforms with automatic scalingnot Keycloak
Running distributed AI agents and background workersnot Keycloak

Where each one falls short

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

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

Koyeb

Pricing starts at $29/month with additional compute costs
GPU compute is expensive at $0.75-$2.50 per hour
Limited customization for infrastructure configuration

Pricing, plan by plan

Keycloak

Free

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

Koyeb

$29/month

Pro$29/month
- $10 included compute
- 10 users
- 100 services
Scale$299/month
- $100 included compute
- 50 users
- 1,000 services
Enterprise$1000/month
- Unlimited users
- Custom resources
- SSO/RBAC

Which should you pick?

Choose Keycloak if

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

Keycloak review

Choose Koyeb if

You need serverless containers.
You work on Web, CLI, API.
You also want gpu support.

Koyeb review

Questions people ask

Is Keycloak or Koyeb better?: Neither clearly leads. Keycloak starts at Free and Koyeb at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Keycloak or Koyeb?: Keycloak has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Keycloak and $29/month for Koyeb.
Does Keycloak or Koyeb run on more platforms?: Keycloak runs on Self-hosted, Docker, Kubernetes, Linux, Windows, API. Koyeb runs on Web, CLI, API.
Can I use Keycloak for free?: Yes. Keycloak has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Koyeb starts at $29/month.
What is Keycloak best used for?: Keycloak is most often used for organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency, companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication, open-source projects and communities requiring free iam without licensing costs, enterprises building custom identity workflows requiring fine-grained authorisation. Of those, organisations requiring self-hosted identity infrastructure for compliance or data residency and companies with existing ldap/active directory systems needing federated authentication are not what Koyeb is typically brought in for.
What can Keycloak do that Koyeb cannot?: Koyeb covers Serverless containers, GPU support, Global distribution, Multi-protocol support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Keycloak: What protocols does Keycloak support?

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

Source

Koyeb: What are Koyeb's subscription plans?

Pro plan is $29/month with $10 included compute, Scale plan is $299/month with $100 included compute and 99.9% SLA, and Enterprise starts at $1,000/month with unlimited users and 99.99% SLA.

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

Koyeb: How much does GPU compute cost?

GPU pricing is per-second: RTX-A6000 costs $0.75/hour, A100 costs $1.60/hour, H100 costs $2.50/hour, and 8x H100 costs $20.00/hour.

Source

Keycloak: Is Keycloak free?

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

Source

Koyeb: What database options are available?

Koyeb offers serverless Postgres starting at free (0.25 vCPU, 1GB RAM) up to 3XL at $1.28/hour with 8 vCPU and 32GB RAM. Storage costs $0.50/month per GB.

Source

Keycloak vs Koyeb

Keycloak

Koyeb

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Keycloak

Only in Koyeb

What people use each for

Keycloak

Koyeb

Where each one falls short

Keycloak

Koyeb

Pricing, plan by plan

Keycloak

Koyeb

Which should you pick?

Choose Keycloak if

Choose Koyeb if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Keycloak

More on Koyeb

Keep looking

Other head to heads