
Dex
The facts below are what the maker publishes about Dex, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From Dex's own pricing page, checked 5 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Dex | Free | Open-source federated identity service · self-hosted · no listed usage limits |
The facts
Each one read from Dex's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Connector limitation
- The SAML connector does not issue refresh tokens, which can prevent offline access for clients such as kubectl.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- Dex can be installed as a container image, deployed with a Helm chart, or built from source, and the site says it runs anywhere Go runs.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Features
- Dex provides a single authentication layer so teams can add upstream providers without changing their application code.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Governance
- The official site identifies Dex as a CNCF Sandbox project developed under CNCF governance.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented connectors include LDAP, GitHub, SAML 2.0, GitLab, OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, AuthProxy, Bitbucket Cloud, OpenShift, Atlassian Crowd, Gitea, and OpenStack Keystone.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Kubernetes
- Dex offers a lightweight binary and official Helm chart for use alongside Kubernetes workloads.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Dex is a federated OpenID Connect identity service that lets applications use OIDC while Dex connects to upstream identity providers.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Security
- Dex’s storage documentation says its backing storage can contain signing keys and bcrypt-hashed passwords and recommends transport security and database access controls.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Security reporting
- Dex says GitHub and mailing lists are not appropriate for vulnerability reports and links to a security disclosure process.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Storage
- Dex supports etcd, Kubernetes custom resources, SQLite3, Postgres, and MySQL for persistent state.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Support
- Dex directs users to file issues for bugs and feature requests and offers general discussion through CNCF Slack and GitHub Discussions.checked 5 Oct 2026
- Token claims
- Dex supports scopes and claims including email, profile, groups, federated identity, and offline access, subject to connector capabilities.checked 5 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Machine authentication
- Dex documents OAuth2 token exchange for exchanging an existing access or ID token for a Dex-issued token, including for CI and other automated processes.checked 5 Oct 2026
Alternatives to Dex
- 1

Authgear
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Ory
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxmacOS8.4From $770 a year - 3

FusionAuth
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Google Cloud Identity
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.3Free plan - 5

Descope
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.6$249 usage-based - 6

Okta Customer Identity Cloud
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI7.6From $35 a month
