Learn how Cerbos and Ory differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these authorization & permissions tools is best for you.
Last 30 days
Last commit
Repository age
Version
License
Self-hosted
Repository

Last 30 days
Last commit
Repository age
Version
License
Self-hosted
Repository

Both Cerbos and Ory have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.
Ory significantly outpaces Cerbos in community adoption with 13,856 stars compared to 4,565 stars on GitHub. This 3.0x difference suggests Ory has a much larger and more active community. In terms of developer contributions, Ory has 1,180 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.
Cerbos is growing faster, adding 49 stars in the last 30 days (+1.1%) against adding 52 stars for Ory (+0.4%). Cerbos is the smaller project of the two, so it is closing the gap rather than extending a lead.
Cerbos shows more recent development activity with its last commit 8 hours ago, while Ory was last updated 1 month ago. This suggests Cerbos is being more actively maintained.
Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, Bash, Golang. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Cerbos uses CSS, Python, Rust, PHP, Java, Ruby, C#.
Ory has been in development longer, starting 8 years ago, compared to Cerbos which began 5 years ago. This 2.9-year head start suggests Ory may have more mature features and established processes.
Both projects use the Apache-2.0 license, providing identical terms for usage and distribution.
Both tools serve similar use cases in Authorization & Permissions. However, they also have distinct specializations: Cerbos also focuses on Application Security while Ory extends into Authentication & SSO.
Both Cerbos and Ory offer self-hosting capabilities, giving you full control over your data and infrastructure.