How to Self-Host Authentik 2026

TL;DR

Authentik (MIT, ~13K GitHub stars, Python/Go) is the best self-hosted identity provider for homelabs and small teams — a free alternative to Okta or Auth0 for your self-hosted apps. It supports OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, and LDAP, letting you add single sign-on to Grafana, Mattermost, Gitea, Nextcloud, Portainer, and any app that supports these protocols. One login for everything. Okta costs $2/user/month; Authentik is free for unlimited users and applications.

Key Takeaways

• Authentik: MIT, ~13K stars — SSO/IdP for all your self-hosted apps
• Protocols: OAuth2, OIDC, SAML 2.0, LDAP, RADIUS — works with any app
• Flows: Highly customizable login flows (MFA, invite-only, staged enrollment)
• Proxy provider: Add auth to apps that have no built-in auth (basic HTTP auth)
• Pre-built integrations: Step-by-step guides for 50+ popular apps
• LDAP outpost: Acts as LDAP server so apps that only support LDAP still work

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Authentik vs Keycloak vs Zitadel

Feature	Authentik	Keycloak	Zitadel
License	MIT	Apache 2.0	Apache 2.0
GitHub Stars	~13K	~23K	~8K
Language	Python + Go	Java	Go
UI/UX	Modern, clean	Complex	Modern
Setup complexity	Medium	High	Medium
Proxy auth	Yes	No	No
LDAP outpost	Yes	Yes	No
Passwordless	Yes	Yes	Yes
Flows customization	Yes (visual)	Yes (complex)	Limited
RAM	~400MB	~600MB+	~200MB

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Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  postgresql:
    image: docker.io/library/postgres:16-alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -d $${POSTGRES_DB} -U $${POSTGRES_USER}"]
      start_period: 20s
      interval: 30s
    volumes:
      - database:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${PG_PASS:?database password required}
      POSTGRES_USER: ${PG_USER:-authentik}
      POSTGRES_DB: ${PG_DB:-authentik}

  redis:
    image: docker.io/library/redis:alpine
    command: --save 60 1 --loglevel warning
    restart: unless-stopped
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "redis-cli ping | grep PONG"]
      start_period: 20s
    volumes:
      - redis:/data

  server:
    image: ghcr.io/goauthentik/server:2024.12.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: server
    environment:
      AUTHENTIK_REDIS__HOST: redis
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__HOST: postgresql
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__USER: ${PG_USER:-authentik}
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__NAME: ${PG_DB:-authentik}
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD: ${PG_PASS}
      AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY: ${AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__HOST: ${EMAIL_HOST:-localhost}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__PORT: ${EMAIL_PORT:-25}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USERNAME: ${EMAIL_USERNAME:-""}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__PASSWORD: ${EMAIL_PASSWORD:-""}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USE_TLS: ${EMAIL_USE_TLS:-false}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__USE_SSL: ${EMAIL_USE_SSL:-false}
      AUTHENTIK_EMAIL__FROM: ${EMAIL_FROM:-authentik@localhost}
    volumes:
      - ./media:/media
      - ./custom-templates:/templates
    ports:
      - "${COMPOSE_PORT_HTTP:-9000}:9000"
      - "${COMPOSE_PORT_HTTPS:-9443}:9443"
    depends_on:
      - postgresql
      - redis

  worker:
    image: ghcr.io/goauthentik/server:2024.12.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    command: worker
    environment:
      AUTHENTIK_REDIS__HOST: redis
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__HOST: postgresql
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__USER: ${PG_USER:-authentik}
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__NAME: ${PG_DB:-authentik}
      AUTHENTIK_POSTGRESQL__PASSWORD: ${PG_PASS}
      AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY: ${AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY}
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - ./media:/media
      - ./custom-templates:/templates
    depends_on:
      - postgresql
      - redis

volumes:
  database:
  redis:

# .env
PG_PASS=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 60)
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.yourdomain.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_USERNAME=noreply@yourdomain.com
EMAIL_PASSWORD=your-smtp-password
EMAIL_USE_TLS=true
EMAIL_FROM=noreply@yourdomain.com

docker compose up -d

Visit https://your-server:9443/if/flow/initial-setup/ to create the admin account.

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Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

auth.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:9000
}

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Part 3: Connect an App (Grafana Example)

Create an OIDC Provider in Authentik

1. Applications → Providers → Create → OAuth2/OpenID Provider
2. Name: Grafana
3. Authorization flow: default-provider-authorization-explicit-consent
4. Client type: Confidential
5. Copy: Client ID and Client Secret
6. Redirect URIs: https://grafana.yourdomain.com/login/generic_oauth
7. Scopes: email, profile, openid

Create an Application

1. Applications → Applications → Create
2. Name: Grafana
3. Slug: grafana
4. Provider: Select the Grafana provider you just created
5. Launch URL: https://grafana.yourdomain.com

Configure Grafana

# grafana.ini
[auth.generic_oauth]
enabled = true
name = Authentik
allow_sign_up = true
client_id = YOUR_CLIENT_ID
client_secret = YOUR_CLIENT_SECRET
scopes = openid email profile
auth_url = https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/grafana/authorize/
token_url = https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/grafana/token/
api_url = https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/userinfo/
role_attribute_path = contains(groups[*], 'authentik Admins') && 'Admin' || 'Viewer'

---

Part 4: Connect Other Apps

Mattermost

Provider type: OAuth2/OpenID → Redirect URI: https://chat.yourdomain.com/signup/gitlab/complete

In Mattermost System Console → OAuth 2.0 → GitLab (compatible):

Auth endpoint: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/authorize/
Token endpoint: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/token/
User API endpoint: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/userinfo/

Gitea

1. Authentik: Create OAuth2 Provider → Redirect URI: https://git.yourdomain.com/user/oauth2/authentik/callback
2. Gitea: Site Admin → Authentication Sources → Add OAuth2 Source
3. Provider: OpenID Connect
4. Discovery URL: https://auth.yourdomain.com/application/o/gitea/.well-known/openid-configuration

Nextcloud

1. Authentik: Create OIDC Provider → Redirect URI: https://cloud.yourdomain.com/apps/oidc_login/oidc
2. Nextcloud: Apps → Install "OpenID Connect Login"
3. Configure with Authentik OIDC endpoints

Portainer

1. Authentik: Create OAuth2 Provider → Redirect URI: https://portainer.yourdomain.com
2. Portainer: Settings → Authentication → OAuth
3. Type: Custom, enter Authentik authorization/token/userinfo endpoints

---

Part 5: Proxy Provider (Add Auth to Any App)

The Proxy Provider adds authentication to apps with no built-in auth:

1. Providers → Create → Proxy Provider
2. Name: Unprotected App
3. External host: https://app.yourdomain.com
4. Mode: Forward auth (single application) or Forward auth (domain level)

# Caddy config for proxy auth:
app.yourdomain.com {
    forward_auth localhost:9000 {
        uri /outpost.goauthentik.io/auth/caddy

        copy_headers X-authentik-username X-authentik-groups X-authentik-email X-authentik-name X-authentik-uid

        trusted_proxies private_ranges
    }
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Now app.yourdomain.com requires Authentik login — even if the app has no auth.

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Part 6: Multi-Factor Authentication

Configure MFA for all users:

1. Flows → default-authentication-flow → Edit
2. Add stage: MFA Validation Stage
3. Configure: TOTP, WebAuthn (passkey), or email OTP

Users enroll MFA at: https://auth.yourdomain.com/if/user/ → Security

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Part 7: LDAP Outpost

For apps that only support LDAP (not OIDC/SAML):

1. Applications → Outposts → Create → LDAP Outpost
2. Configure the outpost with the Authentik server URL
3. Deploy the LDAP outpost:

services:
  authentik-ldap:
    image: ghcr.io/goauthentik/ldap:2024.12.1
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "389:3389"   # LDAP
      - "636:6636"   # LDAPS
    environment:
      AUTHENTIK_HOST: https://auth.yourdomain.com
      AUTHENTIK_INSECURE: "false"
      AUTHENTIK_TOKEN: your-outpost-token

Apps connect to ldap://your-server:389 — Authentik handles authentication.

---

Maintenance

# Update Authentik (use pinned version tags):
# Edit docker-compose.yml to bump version number
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup:
docker exec postgresql pg_dump -U authentik authentik \
  | gzip > authentik-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f server
docker compose logs -f worker

# Admin panel: https://auth.yourdomain.com/if/admin/

Why Self-Host Authentik?

The case for self-hosting Authentik comes down to three practical factors: data ownership, cost at scale, and operational control.

Data ownership is the fundamental argument. When you use a SaaS version of any tool, your data lives on someone else's infrastructure subject to their terms of service, their security practices, and their business continuity. If the vendor raises prices, gets acquired, changes API limits, or shuts down, you're left scrambling. Self-hosting Authentik means your data and configuration stay on infrastructure you control — whether that's a VPS, a bare metal server, or a home lab.

Cost at scale matters once you move beyond individual use. Most SaaS equivalents charge per user or per data volume. A self-hosted instance on a $10-20/month VPS typically costs less than per-user SaaS pricing for teams of five or more — and the cost doesn't scale linearly with usage. One well-configured server handles dozens of users for a flat monthly fee.

Operational control is the third factor. The Docker Compose configuration above exposes every setting that commercial equivalents often hide behind enterprise plans: custom networking, environment variables, storage backends, and authentication integrations. You decide when to update, how to configure backups, and what access controls to apply.

The honest tradeoff: you're responsible for updates, backups, and availability. For teams running any production workloads, this is familiar territory. For individuals, the learning curve is real but the tooling (Docker, Caddy, automated backups) is well-documented and widely supported.

Server Requirements and Sizing

Before deploying Authentik, assess your server capacity against expected workload.

Minimum viable setup: A 1 vCPU, 1GB RAM VPS with 20GB SSD is sufficient for personal use or small teams. Most consumer VPS providers — Hetzner, DigitalOcean, Linode, Vultr — offer machines in this range for $5-10/month. Hetzner offers excellent price-to-performance for European and US regions.

Recommended production setup: 2 vCPUs with 4GB RAM and 40GB SSD handles most medium deployments without resource contention. This gives Authentik headroom for background tasks, caching, and concurrent users while leaving capacity for other services on the same host.

Storage planning: The Docker volumes in this docker-compose.yml store all persistent Authentik data. Estimate your storage growth rate early — for data-intensive tools, budget for 3-5x your initial estimate. Hetzner Cloud and Vultr both support online volume resizing without stopping your instance.

Operating system: Any modern 64-bit Linux distribution works. Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Debian 12 are the most commonly tested configurations. Ensure Docker Engine 24.0+ and Docker Compose v2 are installed — verify with docker --version and docker compose version. Avoid Docker Desktop on production Linux servers; it adds virtualization overhead and behaves differently from Docker Engine in ways that cause subtle networking issues.

Network: Only ports 80 and 443 need to be publicly accessible when running behind a reverse proxy. Internal service ports should be bound to localhost only. A minimal UFW firewall that blocks all inbound traffic except SSH, HTTP, and HTTPS is the single most effective security measure for a self-hosted server.

Backup and Disaster Recovery

Running Authentik without a tested backup strategy is an unacceptable availability risk. Docker volumes are not automatically backed up — if you delete a volume or the host fails, data is gone with no recovery path.

What to back up: The named Docker volumes containing Authentik's data (database files, user uploads, application state), your docker-compose.yml and any customized configuration files, and .env files containing secrets.

Backup approach: For simple setups, stop the container, archive the volume contents, then restart. For production environments where stopping causes disruption, use filesystem snapshots or database dump commands (PostgreSQL pg_dump, SQLite .backup, MySQL mysqldump) that produce consistent backups without downtime.

For a complete automated backup workflow that ships snapshots to S3-compatible object storage, see the Restic + Rclone backup guide. Restic handles deduplication and encryption; Rclone handles multi-destination uploads. The same setup works for any Docker volume.

Backup cadence: Daily backups to remote storage are a reasonable baseline for actively used tools. Use a 30-day retention window minimum — long enough to recover from mistakes discovered weeks later. For critical data, extend to 90 days and use a secondary destination.

Restore testing: A backup that has never been restored is a backup you cannot trust. Once a month, restore your Authentik backup to a separate Docker Compose stack on different ports and verify the data is intact. This catches silent backup failures, script errors, and volume permission issues before they matter in a real recovery.

Security Hardening

Self-hosting means you are responsible for Authentik's security posture. The Docker Compose setup provides a functional base; production deployments need additional hardening.

Always use a reverse proxy: Never expose Authentik's internal port directly to the internet. The docker-compose.yml binds to localhost; Caddy or Nginx provides HTTPS termination. Direct HTTP access transmits credentials in plaintext. A reverse proxy also centralizes TLS management, rate limiting, and access logging.

Strong credentials: Change default passwords immediately after first login. For secrets in docker-compose environment variables, generate random values with openssl rand -base64 32 rather than reusing existing passwords.

Firewall configuration:

ufw default deny incoming
ufw allow 22/tcp
ufw allow 80/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw enable

Internal service ports (databases, admin panels, internal APIs) should only be reachable from localhost or the Docker network, never directly from the internet.

Network isolation: Docker Compose named networks keep Authentik's services isolated from other containers on the same host. Database containers should not share networks with containers that don't need direct database access.

VPN access for sensitive services: For internal-only tools, restricting access to a VPN adds a strong second layer. Headscale is an open source Tailscale control server that puts your self-hosted stack behind a WireGuard mesh, eliminating public internet exposure for internal tools.

Update discipline: Subscribe to Authentik's GitHub releases page to receive security advisory notifications. Schedule a monthly maintenance window to pull updated images. Running outdated container images is the most common cause of self-hosted service compromises.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Container exits immediately or won't start

Check logs first — they almost always explain the failure:

docker compose logs -f authentik

Common causes: a missing required environment variable, a port already in use, or a volume permission error. Port conflicts appear as bind: address already in use. Find the conflicting process with ss -tlpn | grep PORT and either stop it or change Authentik's port mapping in docker-compose.yml.

Cannot reach the web interface

Work through this checklist:

1. Confirm the container is running: docker compose ps
2. Test locally on the server: curl -I http://localhost:PORT
3. If local access works but external doesn't, check your firewall: ufw status
4. If using a reverse proxy, verify it's running and the config is valid: caddy validate --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

Permission errors on volume mounts

Some containers run as a non-root user. If the Docker volume is owned by root, the container process cannot write to it. Find the volume's host path with docker volume inspect VOLUME_NAME, check the tool's documentation for its expected UID, and apply correct ownership:

chown -R 1000:1000 /var/lib/docker/volumes/your_volume/_data

High resource usage over time

Memory or CPU growing continuously usually indicates unconfigured log rotation, an unbound cache, or accumulated data needing pruning. Check current usage with docker stats authentik. Add resource limits in docker-compose.yml to prevent one container from starving others. For ongoing visibility into resource trends, deploy Prometheus + Grafana or Netdata.

Data disappears after container restart

Data stored in the container's writable layer — rather than a named volume — is lost when the container is removed or recreated. This happens when the volume mount path in docker-compose.yml doesn't match where the application writes data. Verify mount paths against the tool's documentation and correct the mapping. Named volumes persist across container removal; only docker compose down -v deletes them.

Keeping Authentik Updated

Authentik follows a regular release cadence. Staying current matters for security patches and compatibility. The update process with Docker Compose is straightforward:

docker compose pull          # Download updated images
docker compose up -d         # Restart with new images
docker image prune -f        # Remove old image layers (optional)

Read the changelog before major version updates. Some releases include database migrations or breaking configuration changes. For major version bumps, test in a staging environment first — run a copy of the service on different ports with the same volume data to validate the migration before touching production.

Version pinning: For stability, pin to a specific image tag in docker-compose.yml instead of latest. Update deliberately after reviewing the changelog. This trades automatic patch delivery for predictable behavior — the right call for business-critical services.

Post-update verification: After updating, confirm Authentik is functioning correctly. Most services expose a /health endpoint that returns HTTP 200 — curl it from the server or monitor it with your uptime tool.

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See all open source identity and authentication tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/security.

See open source alternatives to Authentik on OSSAlt.