FreeRADIUS/freeradius-server

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

2574 stars · 1195 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

FreeRADIUS is a high-performance, highly configurable multi-protocol policy server supporting RADIUS, DHCPv4/v6, DNS, TACACS+, and VMPS, written in C. It centralizes authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) for networks, powering ISPs, enterprises, and eduroam for hundreds of millions of users.

Use cases

• set up a RADIUS server for WiFi 802.1x authentication
• centralize AAA for an ISP with millions of subscribers
• authenticate VPN and PPPoE users against Active Directory or LDAP
• run eduroam Wi-Fi roaming for a university
• integrate RADIUS accounting with MySQL or PostgreSQL backends
• serve DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 alongside RADIUS
• implement EAP-TLS / EAP-TTLS certificate-based network access

When to choose

• you need a battle-tested, scalable RADIUS/AAA server for enterprise, ISP, or campus networks
• you need 802.1x/EAP authentication with backends like LDAP, SQL, or Active Directory
• you want a modular policy server supporting multiple protocols (RADIUS, DHCP, TACACS+)

When to avoid

• you need a simple embedded AAA solution with minimal configuration overhead
• you want to run the unreleased version 4 in production before its official release
• you need a lightweight client-only RADIUS tool rather than a full server

Facets

service · maturity stable

auth authorization http-server networking security middleware networking security backend self-hosted developer-tools bsd cross-platform c radius aaa eap 8021x dhcp tacacs dot1x policy-server eduroam wpa-enterprise linux macos

Member repositories

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="FreeRADIUS/freeradius-server")