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Comparison · Infra & APIs

authentik vs Greenbone Vulnerability Manager

A side-by-side editorial comparison of authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

authentik vs Greenbone Vulnerability Manager: at a glance

FeatureauthentikGreenbone Vulnerability Manager
SectorInfra & APIsInfra & APIs
Velocity score6.36.3
Sparks · 30d11
Top themesidentity-provider, enterprise-agents, endpoint-identity, oauth2vulnerability management, web application scanning, gmp protocol, report modeling
Last editorial update3h ago11d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is authentik?

authentik 2026.8 ships: Actors, domain-joined Agents, and a push past browser-mediated SSO

2026.8.0 is out, closing a seven-candidate train that ran through early August. The GA tag itself is the last cherry-pick batch — SCIM group membership removals, a proxy redirect that preserves query strings, session deletion on user deactivation — but the release it finalizes is where the substance lives: an Actors primitive in core, an enterprise Agent requiring a domain join and its own API scope, OAuth2 token exchange delegation, and a CAS source integration.

Read the full authentik trajectory →

What is Greenbone Vulnerability Manager?

Greenbone's scanner daemon is growing a web-application scanning class beside its network roots.

gvmd releases every week or two, and the changelog splits cleanly in three: a sustained build-out of web application scanning, a rewrite of how reports are modeled and exported, and a long tail of memory-management fixes in the C core. Recent versions added web application scanner preferences, scanner verification, and a Web Application VT subtype with a database migration. The report work moved from ad-hoc XML toward a structured report model addressable through new GMP commands.

Read the full Greenbone Vulnerability Manager trajectory →

authentik vs Greenbone Vulnerability Manager: editorial side-by-side

A
authentik
INFRA · APIS
6.3

authentik 2026.8 ships: Actors, domain-joined Agents, and a push past browser-mediated SSO

◆ Current state

2026.8.0 is out, closing a seven-candidate train that ran through early August. The GA tag itself is the last cherry-pick batch — SCIM group membership removals, a proxy redirect that preserves query strings, session deletion on user deactivation — but the release it finalizes is where the substance lives: an Actors primitive in core, an enterprise Agent requiring a domain join and its own API scope, OAuth2 token exchange delegation, and a CAS source integration.

◆ Where it's heading

Two threads converge in this major. The identity surface keeps broadening at the protocol edge — CAS, WS-Fed, token exchange delegation, on-behalf-of — while the enterprise tier grows an endpoint story that reaches machines and devices rather than browser sessions. The RC train's shape reinforces it: six candidates fired in one day on CI and docs, then one heavy candidate carrying the features, then a fix-only close. That is release engineering hardened around a major, not a routine point release.

◆ Prediction

With Agents and Actors now GA rather than cherry-picks, the next branch should build out what they enable — device-conditioned policies or agent-brokered credentials — while 2026.8.x settles into backport patches.

G6.3

Greenbone's scanner daemon is growing a web-application scanning class beside its network roots.

◆ Current state

gvmd releases every week or two, and the changelog splits cleanly in three: a sustained build-out of web application scanning, a rewrite of how reports are modeled and exported, and a long tail of memory-management fixes in the C core. Recent versions added web application scanner preferences, scanner verification, and a Web Application VT subtype with a database migration. The report work moved from ad-hoc XML toward a structured report model addressable through new GMP commands.

◆ Where it's heading

Greenbone is widening what gvmd can orchestrate. Network and container scanning were the existing surface; web application scanning is being brought to parity, with its own VT class, preferences, validation, and verification path. In parallel the GMP protocol is gaining first-class report retrieval commands, which makes report data consumable by tooling rather than only renderable. The bug-fix stream is dominated by frees and cleanup in long-lived report paths, the signature of a codebase under memory pressure at scale.

◆ Prediction

Web Application VTs now have a subtype, a migration, and scanner verification, but the audit and scan report commands were added separately; expect the report model work to fold web application results into the same structured retrieval path rather than leaving a parallel one.

Alternatives to authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager

Other Infra & APIs products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either authentik or Greenbone Vulnerability Manager.

See all authentik alternatives → · See all Greenbone Vulnerability Manager alternatives →

Recent activity from authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1d agoauthentikauthentik 2026.8 goes GA with Actors and domain-joined Agents
  2. 9d agoauthentikauthentik 2026.8.0-rc7 lands Actors, enterprise Agents, and CAS sources
  3. 16d agoauthentik2026.8.0-rc6: flaky test and CI metadata fixes
  4. 16d agoauthentik2026.8.0-rc5: release plumbing only
  5. 16d agoauthentik2026.8.0-rc4: fix-only candidate
  6. 16d agoauthentik2026.8.0-rc3: cherry-picked fixes and CI work
  7. 16d agoGreenbone Vulnerability Manageropenvasd library bumped to 23.9
  8. 16d agoGreenbone Vulnerability ManagerGMP gains a get_audit_report_hosts command
  9. 21d agoGreenbone Vulnerability ManagerWeb Application VTs become a first-class scan type
  10. 29d agoGreenbone Vulnerability ManagerStructured report model and the get_scan_report command
  11. 1mo agoGreenbone Vulnerability ManagerPer-object asset permissions and report-script trust checks
  12. 1mo agoGreenbone Vulnerability ManagerAggregate grouping and family-name fixes

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is authentik better than Greenbone Vulnerability Manager?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. authentik and Greenbone Vulnerability Manager are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to authentik?

Top authentik alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "authentik alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/authentik for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Greenbone Vulnerability Manager?

Top Greenbone Vulnerability Manager alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Greenbone Vulnerability Manager alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/greenbone-gvmd for the full list with editorial commentary on each.