Gluu
Gluu is an open source identity and access management company building enterprise authentication and authorization infrastructure anchored by the Linux Foundation Janssen Project and the Cedarling embedded PDP. It serves large enterprises, regulated financial institutions, governments, and developers via Gluu Flex, Agama Lab, and tiered subscription plus usage-based pricing.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersAustin, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Gluu does
Gluu is an open source identity and access management (IAM) company founded in 2009 and headquartered in Austin, Texas. The company builds enterprise-grade authentication, authorization, and federation infrastructure anchored by the Janssen Project at the Linux Foundation. Its core innovation is Cedarling, an open source embeddable Policy Decision Point (PDP) written in Rust that delivers authorization decisions in under 50 microseconds, supported by the Agama low-code identity orchestration language. Commercial offerings include Gluu Flex (managed enterprise cloud infrastructure), Gluu 4 (self-hosted server), Gluu Solo (hosted cloud), Casa (self-service MFA portal), Super Gluu (mobile authenticator app), and the SCAN API marketplace; all run on open standards including OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SAML, FIDO/WebAuthn, and SCIM, with Kubernetes-native deployment and demonstrated scale of 1B+ daily authentications and 10,000+ OIDC transactions per second on Google Spanner.
The company operates a hybrid go-to-market spanning direct enterprise sales for Gluu Flex subscriptions, self-serve e-commerce on Agama Lab for developer licenses and SCAN API credits, a Linux Foundation community channel for the upstream Janssen Project, and partner-led managed services via AArete. Monetization is primarily recurring subscription (tiered from $500/month at 100 MAU to $6,125/month at 1,600 MAU, plus Enterprise hosting tiers up to $40,000/year) supplemented by usage-based pricing on SCAN API credits ($0.01/credit) and Super Gluu push notifications ($0.01 each). Customer segments include large enterprises (IDEMIA-scale anchor contracts), regulated financial institutions (Brazilian Open Banking via FAPI-certified distribution), government and digital public infrastructure programs (Janssen is a registered Digital Public Good), and developers consuming Agama Lab for custom authentication flows.
Gluu firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Gluu
- Legal name
- Gluu, Inc.
- Website
- https://gluu.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Gluu is an open source identity and access management company building enterprise authentication and authorization infrastructure anchored by the Linux Foundation Janssen Project and the Cedarling embedded PDP. It serves large enterprises, regulated financial institutions, governments, and developers via Gluu Flex, Agama Lab, and tiered subscription plus usage-based pricing.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Gluu industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Identity and Access Management
- NAICS
- Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (SAML/OIDC, Identity Providers) (HDAEAJAB)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA) (HDABAHAF), Federation & Identity Standards (SAML/OIDC/OAuth, Federation Hubs) (HDADAAAG), User Lifecycle Provisioning & SCIM Automation (HDAEAJAK), Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (BPAMAEAF)
Keywords
Where Gluu is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Austin
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
Gluu business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Gluu Flex Subscriptions: Commercial subscriptions for Gluu Flex enterprise cloud infrastructure. Pricing based on monthly active users with tiered plans ranging from 100 to 1,600 MAU. Includes Cedarling deployment, JWT validation, and enterprise support.
- Agama Lab Licenses: Purchasable plans for Flex AdminUI license through Agama Lab developer site. Credits-based system for SCAN API marketplace services including Super Gluu notifications and Flex License API calls.
- SCAN API Credits: Credit-based system for API marketplace services. One credit costs US $0.01. Services include Super Gluu API (1 credit), Passwurd Fraud Detection (4 credits), and Agama Deployment API (25 credits).
- Super Gluu Push Notifications: Free app for end users; companies pay $0.01 per push notification for authentication notifications sent through Gluu's hosted Super Gluu API endpoint.
- Professional Services and Partnerships: Partner-driven implementation services through AArete offering Gluu Build Accelerator and Gluu Managed Service. Channel partnerships for deployment and support.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | 100 Monthly Active Users |
| Subscription | Monthly | 400 Monthly Active Users |
| Subscription | Monthly | 1,600 Monthly Active Users |
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise Hosting - Features |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise Hosting - Star |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise Hosting - Galaxy |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | SCAN API Credits |
| Usage-based | Pay-as-you-go | Super Gluu Push Notifications |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
Gluu product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Gluu develops an open source identity and access management (IAM) platform that delivers authentication, authorization, and federation for web, mobile, and API workloads using open standards (OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SAML, FIDO/WebAuthn, SCIM). The platform is offered as enterprise cloud infrastructure (Gluu Flex), self-hosted server (Gluu 4), and cloud-hosted service (Gluu Solo), supplemented by the Cedarling embeddable Policy Decision Point, Agama Lab low-code identity orchestration, Casa self-service MFA portal, Super Gluu mobile authenticator, and the SCAN API marketplace.
Product overview
Gluu is an open source identity and access management (IAM) platform consisting of multiple integrated products. The core platform includes Gluu Flex (enterprise cloud infrastructure) and Gluu 4 (self-hosted server), both built on the upstream Janssen Project at the Linux Foundation. The platform's central component is the Cedarling, an open source embeddable Policy Decision Point for authorization. Gluu's product portfolio also includes Agama Lab for low-code identity orchestration, Casa for self-service MFA management, Super Gluu mobile authenticator app, and SCAN API Marketplace. Products leverage open standards including OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, FIDO/WebAuthn, SCIM, and SAML. The architecture enables Token Based Access Control (TBAC) with declarative policies and centralized decision logging.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Gluu Flex: Enterprise cloud infrastructure that connects Cedarlings, provides OAuth-based workload and person identity, mints JWT tokens and publishes keys.
- Cedarling
- Agama Lab
- Gluu Solo
- Gluu 4
- Super Gluu
- Casa
- SCAN API Marketplace
Products and services
- Gluu Flex Enterprise cloud infrastructure that connects Cedarlings, provides OAuth-based workload and person identity, mints JWT tokens and publishes keys. Includes an Admin UI for centralized management and streams decision data to SIEM and ITDR platforms. Targeted at enterprises needing scalable managed IAM.
- Gluu 4 Stable, self-hosted release of the Gluu Server providing enterprise identity and access management including FIDO2/WebAuthn support for Apple TouchID and platform authenticators. Targeted at enterprises that prefer on-premises deployments.
- Gluu Solo Cloud-hosted Gluu Server offering with unlimited users. Provides Gluu Server in the cloud with hosted digital identity infrastructure for organizations that want managed open source IAM without operating their own servers.
- Cedarling Open source embeddable Policy Decision Point (PDP) built in Rust that returns authorization decisions based on declarative access policies, typically delivering decisions in under 50 microseconds. Runs anywhere — browsers, mobile apps, API gateways, or databases — for consistent authorization and instrumentation.
- Agama Lab Developer portal providing a low-code visual flow designer for authoring, testing, and publishing Agama identity orchestration projects. Enables developers and architects to define web and native authentication workflows and release deployable archives to GitHub repositories.
- Janssen Project Upstream open source project at the Linux Foundation that drives long-term innovation of the core Gluu infrastructure. Provides collaboration hub for digital identity infrastructure software including authentication server, FIDO server, and SCIM server.
- Super Gluu Free mobile authenticator app for iOS and Android that leverages FIDO registration and authentication endpoints, supporting push notifications or QR code scanning for secure two-factor authentication and passwordless login flows.
- Casa Self-service credential management portal for MFA rollout, enabling end users to register, view, and remove MFA credentials including FIDO passkeys, software tokens, biometric credentials, and external federated accounts. Plugin-oriented and brandable.
- SCAN API Marketplace API marketplace within Agama Lab for purchasing security, identity, fraud detection, AI and cryptographic services from Gluu and third-party vendors on a credits-based pricing model at $0.01 per credit.
Quantifiable outcome
- Over 1 billion authentications per day with auto-scaling on cloud native infrastructure
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Gluu
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Gluu technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration8 records
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
Gluu partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Keycloak/CNCFcoreGluu working to integrate Keycloak into both the Janssen Project and commercial Gluu Flex distribution. Seven integrations planned including Keycloak in Jans Setup, authentication provider for SSO, Cache Refresh for sync, Jans Config API endpoints, Admin UI support, and Agama Engine support.
- AAretecoreGlobal consulting partnership to help companies accelerate IAM programs. AArete offers Gluu Build Accelerator for companies building digital identity in their cloud, and Gluu Managed Service for turnkey hosted service. Partnership brings best-in-class solutions for password management, security policy enforcement, reporting, and identity management.
- Plurilock Security Inc.coreStrategic collaboration announced November 18, 2020, enabling both companies to offer integrated solutions combining Gluu's IAM and authentication technologies with Plurilock's AI-driven continuous authentication. The Plurilock adapter was included in the open source Gluu Server distribution starting from version 4.2.2, with Plurilock planning to develop additional components for Gluu's platform.
- CouchbasecoreTechnology partnership enabling Gluu to achieve true horizontal auto-scaling. Couchbase database used for Gluu Server authentication requiring extreme concurrency and active-active multi-datacenter replication. Partnership enabled 1B+ authentications per day milestone.
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreAWS EKS integration for cloud-native Gluu deployments enabling auto-scaling and cost-effective capacity management. Amazon Aurora database support added for cloud-native persistence.
- Google CloudcoreGoogle GKE support for Kubernetes deployments. Google Spanner database support enabling horizontally scalable database service with 10k+ OpenID Connect transactions per second.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Gluu competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Keycloak: CNCF-governed open source IAM platform offering SSO, OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and federation. Closely comparable to Gluu's Janssen Project and an active integration partner; the two compete and complement each other in enterprise open source identity stacks.
- Auth0 (Okta): Developer-first CIAM platform for SSO, social login, MFA, and custom authentication flows via rules/actions. Highly comparable to Gluu Flex and Agama Lab in target buyer (developers) and use case (customizable customer identity journeys).
- WSO2 Identity Server: Open source IAM platform (Apache 2.0) offering SSO, federation, OAuth, OIDC, and SCIM with a commercial subscription model. Closely comparable to Gluu in target customer (enterprises needing open standards identity) and pricing posture.
Broad incumbents
- Okta: Public identity and access management leader offering Workforce Identity and Customer Identity (CIAM) clouds built on OIDC/OAuth/SAML. Competes with Gluu Flex on enterprise SSO, MFA, and federation, with a much larger commercial footprint and bundled workforce offerings.
- Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory): Hyperscaler-scale identity platform included with Microsoft 365 and Azure, providing SSO, conditional access, and federation. Competes with Gluu on enterprise IAM procurement and increasingly bundles zero-trust capabilities that overlap with Gluu's roadmap.
- Ping Identity: Enterprise IAM vendor offering PingFederate, PingOne, and PingID for SSO, federation, and API access. Overlaps with Gluu's enterprise IAM, FAPI-compliant Open Banking, and zero-trust positioning, particularly in regulated BFSI.
- ForgeRock: Enterprise identity platform with strong CIAM and workforce identity offerings, including FAPI-certified Open Banking solutions. Now part of Thoma Bravo's portfolio, positioning it as a direct competitor to Gluu's enterprise BFSI IAM business.
- AWS Cognito: Hyperscaler-native identity service from AWS for SSO, user pools, and federation. Competes with Gluu Flex for cloud-native workloads, especially on AWS EKS where Gluu already deploys; bundled pricing pressures open source IAM alternatives.
- Google Cloud Identity: Google's cloud identity platform (including Workforce Identity Federation and Cloud Identity) built on OIDC and SAML. Competes with Gluu for enterprise SSO and federated workloads, with bundled distribution through Google Workspace and GCP.
Emerging players
- Hydra (ORY): Open source OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect server from the ORY ecosystem, popular with developer-led deployments. Competes with Gluu on developer-focused IAM, especially in cloud-native and API-first stacks, though smaller and less enterprise-proven.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Gluu social profiles
Digital presenceGluu compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
Gluu financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Gluu leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Gluu subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Gluu funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Gluu M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Gluu
What does Gluu do?
Gluu develops an open source identity and access management (IAM) platform that delivers authentication, authorization, and federation for web, mobile, and API workloads using open standards (OpenID Connect, OAuth 2.0, SAML, FIDO/WebAuthn, SCIM). The platform is offered as enterprise cloud infrastructure (Gluu Flex), self-hosted server (Gluu 4), and cloud-hosted service (Gluu Solo), supplemented by the Cedarling embeddable Policy Decision Point, Agama Lab low-code identity orchestration, Casa self-service MFA portal, Super Gluu mobile authenticator, and the SCAN API marketplace.
Is Gluu a public or private company?
Gluu is a private company. It is classified as management employee owned and is currently operating.
When was Gluu founded?
Gluu was founded in 2009. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Gluu based?
Gluu is headquartered in Austin, United States, in the North America region.
How does Gluu make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Gluu Flex Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are agama Lab Licenses, SCAN API Credits, super Gluu Push Notifications and professional Services and Partnerships.
Who are Gluu's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Keycloak, Auth0 (Okta) and WSO2 Identity Server. Broad incumbents are Okta, Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory), Ping Identity, ForgeRock, AWS Cognito and Google Cloud Identity. Hydra (ORY) is listed as an emerging player.
Does Gluu have an API?
Yes. Gluu offers multiple APIs including: SCIM API for user management operations (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE on user resources), Jans Config API for managing components and configuration across the platform (includes SAML trust relations and attribute release policies), FIDO SCIM extension for platform authenticator management, OAuth-based workload and person identity APIs, and JWT token issuance APIs. The platform supports OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0 protocols. API documentation is available at https://gluu.org/docs/ and https://docs.jans.io/ Developer documentation is at gluu.org/docs.
What industry is Gluu in?
Gluu's product category is Identity and Access Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEAJAB, Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (SAML/OIDC, Identity Providers), with a secondary code of HDABAHAF, Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA). Its NAICS code is 5415 and its SIC code is 7373.