ForgeRock vs Keycloak

ForgeRock and Keycloak are both enterprise iam solutions. ForgeRock enterprise identity platform with AI-driven orchestration for complex deployments, while Keycloak open-source IAM platform with SSO, identity brokering, and fine-grained authorization. The best choice depends on your organization's size, technical requirements, and budget.

Choose ForgeRock if visual identity orchestration engine handles the most complex authentication journeys is your priority and large enterprises and service providers needing the most flexible identity orchestration, massive CIAM scale, or complex regulatory compliance requirements. Choose Keycloak if completely free — no licensing costs regardless of user count matters most and organizations with engineering expertise that want full control over their identity platform, avoid vendor lock-in, and eliminate IAM licensing costs.

Keycloak starts at Free (open source) / Red Hat Build of Keycloak via subscription (open source + enterprise subscription). ForgeRock starts at Custom enterprise pricing based on deployment model and scale (per-user subscription or custom enterprise licensing). As always, the sticker price only tells part of the story. Factor in add-ons, implementation costs, and what's actually included at each tier.

It depends on how deeply ForgeRock is embedded in your stack. Most teams run both in parallel for a few weeks before cutting over. Check whether Keycloak supports importing your existing configs or policies. That's usually the biggest time sink.