Zitadel
Open SourceAPIZitadel is an open source cloud-native identity and access management platform with SSO, MFA, and multi-tenancy for B2B
zitadel.comLast updated: April 2026
Zitadel is an open source cloud-native identity and access management platform with SSO, MFA, and multi-tenancy for B2B and B2C applications.
About
Zitadel is an open source, cloud-native identity and access management (IAM) platform designed for modern B2B and B2C applications. Built with multi-tenancy, extensibility, and developer experience as core principles, Zitadel provides a comprehensive identity solution that covers authentication, authorization, user management, and SSO for organizations of any size.
The multi-tenancy model in Zitadel is particularly sophisticated. Organizations (tenants) in Zitadel are first-class entities with their own user pools, identity provider configurations, branding, and security policies. This model is ideal for SaaS applications that need to support enterprise customers with their own identity providers, or platforms that manage multiple isolated client environments from a single Zitadel instance.
Authentication in Zitadel supports a wide range of methods including username and password, passkeys (WebAuthn), TOTP authenticator apps, SMS OTP, email OTP, and external identity providers via OIDC and SAML. Users can register and log in using social providers including Google, GitHub, Microsoft, Apple, and others. The adaptive MFA system can require additional factors based on risk signals.
Single Sign-On in Zitadel uses OpenID Connect and SAML 2.0 to allow users to authenticate once and access multiple applications within the same organization. Enterprise customers can configure their own SSO connection in Zitadel, enabling employees to use their corporate identity provider for authentication, with user attributes mapped from the IdP to Zitadel's user model.
Actions in Zitadel provide extensibility through JavaScript functions that execute during authentication events. Actions can add custom claims to tokens, call external APIs for user enrichment, implement custom validation logic, and modify user attributes based on authentication context. This extensibility enables adapting Zitadel to specific business requirements without modifying the core platform.
The Zitadel Console provides a comprehensive web interface for managing users, organizations, roles, permissions, and configuration. The REST and gRPC APIs expose all management operations programmatically, and official client SDKs for Go, Python, JavaScript, and Java simplify integration.
Zitadel can be self-hosted on Kubernetes using Helm charts or deployed as a standalone binary, and the Zitadel Cloud managed service provides a hosted option.
Positioning
Zitadel is an open source identity and access management platform built for the cloud-native era, providing authentication, authorization, and user management through a system designed from the ground up for multi-tenancy. Unlike legacy IAM systems retrofitted for modern use cases, Zitadel's event-sourced architecture treats identity as a first-class distributed systems problem, enabling organizations to manage millions of users across thousands of tenants with consistent performance.
Built in Switzerland with a strong emphasis on privacy and data sovereignty, Zitadel offers both a managed cloud service and full self-hosting capability. The platform provides OIDC-compliant authentication, SAML federation, SCIM provisioning, and fine-grained authorization out of the box — a complete identity infrastructure that competes with Auth0 and Keycloak while offering superior multi-tenant architecture.
What You Get
- Authentication
OIDC/OAuth 2.0 compliant login with passwordless (FIDO2/passkeys), social login, enterprise SSO (SAML), MFA, and customizable login flows - Multi-Tenancy
Built-in organization management with isolated user pools, per-tenant branding, custom domains, and delegated administration - Authorization
Role-based access control with project-level roles, organizational roles, and custom claims for fine-grained permission modeling - User Management
Self-service user portal, admin console, and management APIs for user lifecycle including registration, verification, and deactivation - SCIM & Directory Sync
Automated user provisioning from enterprise directories for B2B applications requiring enterprise identity integration - Actions & Customization
Server-side actions (similar to Auth0 Actions) for extending authentication flows with custom logic at every lifecycle point
Core Areas
B2B SaaS Identity
Multi-tenant authentication and organization management purpose-built for SaaS applications serving enterprise customers
Self-Hosted IAM
Complete identity infrastructure deployable on Kubernetes or Docker with PostgreSQL, replacing Keycloak or Auth0 with a modern alternative
Customer Identity (CIAM)
Consumer-facing registration, login, and profile management with customizable branding and self-service capabilities
Workforce Identity
Employee SSO, directory integration, and access management for internal applications with audit logging
Why It Matters
Identity management is foundational infrastructure — every application needs authentication, and B2B SaaS applications need multi-tenant identity management that scales. Zitadel provides this as open source software with an architecture specifically designed for multi-tenancy, which means SaaS builders get enterprise-grade identity without the per-user pricing that makes commercial IAM platforms expensive at scale.
The event-sourced architecture provides complete auditability of every identity change — who created which account, when passwords were reset, which sessions were established — creating an immutable audit trail that satisfies the strictest compliance requirements. Combined with Swiss data protection standards, Zitadel is a compelling choice for privacy-conscious organizations.
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