Gluu

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.

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

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

• Identity and access management
• Open source IAM
• Single sign-on
• Multi-factor authentication
• Zero trust security

Headquarters

HQ city

Austin

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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).
4. 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.
5. 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

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core 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

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

AI capability7 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Keycloak/CNCFcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 2 June 2023Gluu 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.
• AAretecoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 9 September 2021Global 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.coreTechnology or Integration · 18 November 2020Strategic 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 or IntegrationTechnology 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)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS 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 CloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationGoogle 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

Direct 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

• GitHubgithub.com/GluuFederation
• YouTubegluu.co/live
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gluu-inc.
• Xx.com/gluufederation
• Facebookfacebook.com/gluufederation

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gluu