Keycloak
Introduction
Developed and launched initially on September 10, 2014 by Wildfly a subsidiary of Red Hat, Keycloak’s main objective was to grant a seamless and an easy access to users on multiple modern applications and platforms with just a single sign-on. This technically implies that with you signing in once into the software, you have access to all modern applications supported by Keycloak, hence you save yourself the stress and time of signing in and out multiple times. This piece, however, tend to give you an overview all there is to know about Keycloak, with a kick-off from what features it has to offer, to the integration process, to pros and con, and ultimately, wrapping everything up with a succinct conclusion.
What is Keycloak?
As aforementioned, Keycloak is an open source server and console that avail you access to single sign-in on multiple modern applications and services like Facebook, Google, Twitter, amongst others using standard protocols like SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect to protect your applications. According to research, it has the licensing authorization of apache, version 2.0. And based on a release by Github, other product of Keycloak include but not limited to (1) keycloak documentation (2) Keycloak Java and Server adapters (3) Keycloak QuickStarts (4) KeycloakNnode.js Connect (a node adapter java script for Keycloak) (4) Keycloak Node.js Admin Client (a node java script library for Keycloak Admin REST API.
Features
With Keycloak comes with many astounding and numerous features, however, for the sake of brevity, the succeeding lines will highlight them briefly.
- It supports SAML
- It has an OpenID Connect Support
- It’s OAuth 2.0 support
- It enables a Single Sign-in and Sign-out across all browser applications
- It enables token mapping, that is, it maps user features, roles, et cetera, into statements and tokens
- It enables seasons management, which implies that users can manage and view their sessions
- It enables social logins with such social applications and services likc Facebook, Google, Github, Twitter, Instagram, et cetera, et cetera
- It enables centralization by syncing users from Active Directory servers and LDAP.
- It enables account management consoles which lets users to manage their account centrally
- It allows 2nd Factor Authentication for TOTP/HOTP using FreeOTP or Google Authentication
- Et cetera, et cetera…
How to Use or Get started
To get started with Keycloak is simple and seamless, all you need do is follow the simple and easy steps below:
Step 1: Log on to Keycloak website
Step 2: Click on the download icon to download the distribution
Step 3: After download, unzip and run the following codes: bin/kc. [sh] start-dev
Alternative: The Docker image can also be used by running the following codes: docker run quay.io/keycloak/keycloak start-dev
Pricing Model
Suprisingly, Keycloak comes with no charge attachment, in other words, its free to use.
The Advantages
- It provides a seamless authorization services: with Keycloak you have a free access to easy authorization services that takes no more than a slipt second of your time.
- It is free: another best part of Keycloak is that it is free to use compared to other security and authentication server with may rip you off a great deal of cash without providing a satisfactory service.
- It easy to integrate and use: With the aforementioned integration steps distilled down to just three, you are sure to have a seamless navigation with Keycloak
- Universality: Keycloak offers a services that works and support virtually, if not all modern applications.
- It saves your time and effort: With Keycloak, you are sure to have an easy flow of logins as you can log in and out of all modern application accounts with just one click, hence saving your precious time and efforts.
The Disadvantages
According to review from a user, Keycloak may suffer the following imperfections
- You might experience customization difficulty
- Simultaneous running of applications might causes traffic jam of apps
- Replication of session between Keycloak might not be respond, hence, you may be required to restart the nodes all over
- Documentations and examples provided in the console may seam less objective, as it only focus on the sweet part without dealing with the critical issues that may tend to arise.
Kindly note that the aforementioned disadvantages does not nullifies the use of Keycloak in its entirety as there are no human-made application or invention without its imperfections, and the fact that benefits you tends to get from Keycloak is far fetch than the downsides that come with it.
Conclusion
Based on the foregoing analysis and comprehensive illustration, I hope you are able to garner and understand all there is to know about Keycloak in its entirety, ranging from its features, to its free price model, to its integration process, and its pros and cons. Ultimately, I hope with piece helps you make a rational decision when contemplating on which access and authentication server to use.
