Identity & Access Management · head to head
Ory vs Strapi
Ory
Identity & Access Management
Open-source identity, authentication, and permissions infrastructure
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Ory production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.; Strapi cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
- They diverge on capability: Ory covers Authentication APIs, Strapi covers REST API.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Ory and Strapi actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Ory
- Authentication APIs
- Permissions engine
- Machine-to-machine tokens
- B2B organizations
- SAML SSO
- Multi-region deployments
Only in Strapi
- REST API
- GraphQL API
- Content management
- PostgreSQL
- MySQL
- MongoDB
- AWS
- Webhooks
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Ory
- Adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new productnot Strapi
- Implementing fine-grained permission checksnot Strapi
- Supporting B2B organizations and multi-tenancynot Strapi
- Building machine-to-machine authentication for microservicesnot Strapi
Strapi
- Running a self hosted headless CMS with a REST or GraphQL APInot Ory
- Giving editors a content admin panel over a custom content modelnot Ory
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Ory
- Production and Growth plans are billed annually ($770/year and $9,350/year), which is a larger upfront commitment than monthly-only competitors.
- SAML SSO and multi-region deployments are reserved for the custom-priced Enterprise tier.
- Usage-based pricing across aDAU, M2M tokens, and permission checks makes cost estimation more complex than flat per-MAU billing.
Strapi
- Cloud pricing is per project, not per account, so a second project doubles the bill
- Starter at $35 a month allows 100,000 API requests, and overage is $1.50 per 25,000
- Extra bandwidth is $30 per 100 GB and extra asset storage $0.60 per GB
- Backups start at the Pro plan, weekly, and only become daily at Business
- An uptime SLA is Business only, at $450 a month per project
- Additional environments cost $60 a month on Pro and $300 a month on Business
Pricing, plan by plan
Ory
Free- DeveloperFree
- Community support
- No production environments
- Production$64/month
- $21 monthly credit included
- 1 production environment
- 3 staging environments
- Growth$779/month
- $255 monthly credit included
- 2 production environments
- B2B organizations (max 3)
Strapi
Free- CommunityFree
- Self-hosted Strapi
- Community support
- Pro$99/monthly
- Cloud hosting
- Advanced features
- Priority support
- Business$undefined/monthly
- Enterprise features
- Custom SLA
- Dedicated support
Which should you pick?
Choose Ory if
- You need authentication apis.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on web, api.
- You also want permissions engine.
Choose Strapi if
- You need rest api.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
- You also want graphql api.
Questions people ask
- Is Ory or Strapi better?
- Neither clearly leads. Ory starts at Free and Strapi at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Ory or Strapi?
- Ory starts at Free and Strapi at Free.
- Does Ory or Strapi run on more platforms?
- Ory runs on web, api. Strapi runs on Node.js, Cloud, Self-hosted, Docker.
- Can I use Ory for free?
- Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
- What is Ory best used for?
- Ory is most often used for adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product, implementing fine-grained permission checks, supporting b2b organizations and multi-tenancy, building machine-to-machine authentication for microservices. Of those, adding self-hosted or cloud identity to a new product and implementing fine-grained permission checks are not what Strapi is typically brought in for.
- What can Ory do that Strapi cannot?
- Ory covers Authentication APIs, Permissions engine, Machine-to-machine tokens, B2B organizations. Strapi covers REST API, GraphQL API, Content management, PostgreSQL.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Ory: What does Ory cost?
Ory has a free Developer tier, a Production plan at $770/year including a $21 monthly credit, a Growth plan at $9,350/year including a $255 monthly credit, and custom Enterprise pricing.
SourceOry: How is usage metered?
Beyond the included credit, Ory charges per average daily active user (aDAU), per machine-to-machine token, and per permission check, with lower per-unit rates on the Growth plan.
SourceOry: What payment methods are supported?
Ory accepts credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex) and bank transfer, processed via Stripe.
SourceRelated pages
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