Hanko vs Okta
Hanko is a European alternative to Okta — same security & identity use case, built under EU data-protection law.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Open source authentication solution with passkeys, 2FA, SSO support. GDPR compliant, built in Europe. Switch between self-hosted and cloud anytime.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- GDPR by default
- Yes
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- No
Okta by Okta.
- Jurisdiction
- US
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
About Hanko
Hanko is an open-source authentication and user management platform from Kiel, Germany — built as a modern, privacy-first alternative to Auth0, Clerk, and Cognito. It puts passkeys front and centre while still supporting passwords, passcodes, and OAuth social logins.
Developers get Hanko Elements, a set of framework-agnostic Web Components that drop into any frontend in minutes, plus a full backend API for custom flows. The Passkey API can also be bolted onto existing auth systems without a full migration.
Key features:
- Passkey-first authentication — FIDO2-certified, phishing-resistant, biometric login
- Multiple auth methods — passwords, email passcodes, OAuth (Google, Apple, GitHub), 2FA
- Hanko Elements — framework-agnostic Web Components for React, Vue, Angular, and more
- Flexible hosting — self-hosted (AGPLv3) or Hanko Cloud with no lock-in migration
- User management — profiles, sessions, and audit logs out of the box
- GDPR compliant — EU infrastructure, data minimalism by design
Trusted by 10,000+ developers and used in production by SAP and Volt.io. The core is fully open source under AGPLv3 and MIT licences, with GitHub stars growing fast.
Why choose Hanko over Okta?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Okta is headquartered in US, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes — the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
Hanko removes that overhead. As a Germany-based provider, it operates natively under GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors — health, public administration, finance — that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single non-EU jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.