Compare HelloJohn OSS (self-hosted) and HelloJohn Cloud. Understand the feature differences, pricing model, and which option is right for your project.

HelloJohn is available in two editions: OSS (open-source, self-hosted) and Cloud (managed service). Both use the same core auth engine. The difference is who operates it.

At a glance

	OSS (Self-Hosted)	Cloud
Hosting	Your infrastructure	HelloJohn-managed
Price	Free (your infra costs)	Free tier + paid plans
Data ownership	100% yours	Hosted by HelloJohn
Setup time	~30 minutes with Docker	Instant
Multi-tenancy	Single tenant per instance	Unlimited tenants
Custom domains	✅ Fully configurable	✅
SAML SSO	❌ Not included	✅ Enterprise
Audit log	✅ 36 events	✅ 36 events + Cloud dashboard
SLA	None (self-managed)	99.9% uptime
Support	Community (GitHub)	Email + dedicated (paid plans)
Updates	Manual	Automatic
Source code	100% open	Core is open-source

HelloJohn OSS

The open-source edition is a single Go binary you run yourself.

Best for:

Projects with strict data residency requirements
Developers who want full control and zero vendor dependency
Internal tools and private deployments
Teams with the infrastructure to self-manage

What you get:

Full auth server: login, registration, sessions, MFA, OAuth2, OIDC
7 SDKs (React, Next.js, Vue, Node.js, Python, Go, React Native, vanilla JS)
hjctl CLI for management
PostgreSQL, MySQL, and filesystem backends
WebAuthn, TOTP, email, SMS MFA
9 social login providers
Webhooks (36 audit events)
MCP Server (AI agent control)

What you manage:

Server infrastructure and uptime
Database backups
TLS certificates
Version upgrades

Self-hosting guide →

HelloJohn Cloud

The managed edition runs on HelloJohn's infrastructure. You get the same auth engine without the operational overhead.

Best for:

Startups and teams that want to ship fast
B2B SaaS platforms that need multi-tenancy out of the box
Projects that need enterprise features (SAML SSO, directory sync)
Teams without dedicated infrastructure engineers

What you get (beyond OSS):

Fully managed, auto-scaling infrastructure
Web dashboard for tenant and user management
Multi-tenant dashboard — manage all organizations in one place
SAML SSO (Enterprise plan)
Automatic version updates
99.9% uptime SLA
Email and priority support

Start for free →

Pricing

OSS

Free forever. MIT-licensed. No usage limits, no telemetry by default.

Cloud

Plan	Price	Included
Free	$0/mo	Up to 1,000 MAU
Starter	$25/mo	Up to 10,000 MAU
Pro	$99/mo	Up to 100,000 MAU + priority support
Enterprise	Custom	Unlimited MAU + SAML SSO + SLA + dedicated support

MAU = Monthly Active Users (users who signed in at least once in the billing period).

Switching between OSS and Cloud is supported. Your user data can be migrated using hjctl migrate. See the migration guide →.

Feature parity

The core auth features are identical in both editions. Features that are Cloud-only are operational in nature (managed infra, dashboard UI) or enterprise-tier (SAML SSO):

Feature	OSS	Cloud Free	Cloud Pro	Cloud Enterprise
Email/password auth	✅	✅	✅	✅
Social login (9 providers)	✅	✅	✅	✅
MFA (TOTP, WebAuthn, SMS)	✅	✅	✅	✅
Organizations	✅	✅	✅	✅
Custom claims & RBAC	✅	✅	✅	✅
Webhooks	✅	✅	✅	✅
MCP Server	✅	✅	✅	✅
Web dashboard	❌	✅	✅	✅
Multi-tenant dashboard	❌	❌	✅	✅
SAML SSO	❌	❌	❌	✅
Directory sync (SCIM)	❌	❌	❌	✅
Uptime SLA	❌	❌	✅	✅

OSS vs Cloud