KavachOS vs Keycloak
Keycloak is battle-tested enterprise IAM, but it is a Java monolith that takes real effort to deploy, tune, and maintain. KavachOS covers enterprise SSO and adds agent identity, MCP OAuth 2.1, and an edge-native runtime.
10
unique features
11
shared
MIT
open source
Why switch
Keycloak is heavy to run
A production Keycloak deployment typically needs 512 MB to 1 GB of RAM at minimum, a Postgres or MySQL database, and regular JVM tuning. KavachOS Cloud is fully managed. Self-hosted KavachOS runs on Cloudflare Workers or a single Node.js process with SQLite.
No agent identity or MCP support
Keycloak's service accounts and client credentials cover M2M patterns from 2015. There is no concept of AI agent tokens, delegation chains, or MCP OAuth 2.1. KavachOS ships these as first-class primitives.
Open source, but developer experience is a decade behind
Keycloak's admin UI and configuration model were designed for enterprise IT teams, not developers. Realm exports, protocol mappers, and flow configurations have a steep learning curve. KavachOS ships with a clean dashboard and a TypeScript-first SDK.
Feature comparison
| Feature | KavachOS | Keycloak |
|---|---|---|
| AI agent identity Keycloak service accounts are not agent-identity primitives | ||
| MCP OAuth 2.1 KavachOS is spec-compliant; Keycloak has no MCP support | ||
| Agent delegation chains | ||
| Agent permission scoping | ||
| Agent audit log | ||
| Self-hosting Keycloak is self-host only — no SaaS option | ||
| Open source (MIT) Keycloak is Apache 2.0, not MIT | ||
| Social / OAuth providers (27+) Keycloak supports social providers via identity brokering | ||
| Passkeys / WebAuthn Keycloak added WebAuthn support in v9 | ||
| Magic link Keycloak has no native magic link; requires a custom authenticator SPI | ||
| Multi-factor authentication | ||
| Enterprise SSO (SAML, OIDC) Keycloak's strongest area — SAML, OIDC, LDAP, Kerberos | ||
| SCIM provisioning SCIM requires a third-party Keycloak extension | ||
| Organizations / multi-tenancy Keycloak uses separate realms for tenancy — complex to manage at scale | ||
| Machine-to-machine tokens Keycloak service accounts support client credentials grant | ||
| Custom domains Keycloak supports custom domains via reverse proxy | ||
| Custom email templates | ||
| Brute force protection | ||
| Breach password detection | ||
| Free tier Keycloak is free to self-host; no managed cloud tier | ||
| Cloudflare Workers runtime Keycloak requires a JVM — not edge-compatible |
Pricing
Keycloak itself is free to download and run. You pay for the infrastructure it runs on — typically a VM or container cluster with a Postgres database. Red Hat offers a supported enterprise distribution (RHBK) under a subscription. There is no hosted SaaS option from the Keycloak project.
KavachOS Cloud uses flat monthly tiers with no infrastructure to manage. Self-hosting is also free under the MIT license.
Migration
Export your Keycloak realm as JSON using the Keycloak admin CLI (`kc.sh export --realm myrealm`). KavachOS can import users from this format, mapping Keycloak's user representation to KavachOS identities.
Re-create your SAML and OIDC enterprise connections in the KavachOS dashboard. KavachOS uses the same redirect URI patterns, so existing IdP configurations need only minor endpoint URL updates.
Replace Keycloak's OIDC token verification middleware in your services with the KavachOS token verify function. Both issue standard JWTs, so the verification logic changes are minimal.
Migrate client applications by updating the discovery endpoint URL from your Keycloak realm URL to your KavachOS project domain. Most OIDC libraries auto-configure from the discovery document.
Test your SSO flows, social logins, and MFA in staging. Once verified, update your DNS and decommission the Keycloak instance — no forced user re-authentication required for social and SSO users.
FAQ
MIT licensed. Self-hostable. Runs anywhere Node runs.