Space Duck is not Auth0, Okta, or Cognito. It's agent-native identity infrastructure: designed for AI fleets, not human-only web apps. This table compares Space Duck against three common alternatives across 18 criteria. We've tried to be fair. If something is wrong, open an issue.
| Feature | 🦆 Space Duck | DIY (static keys / JWT) | Generic IdP (Auth0 / Okta) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Identity foundations | |||
| Cryptographic birth certificates | ✓ T1/T2/T3 signed certs | ✗ | ✗ |
| Trust tier model (T0→T3) | ✓ Native, 4-tier | ✗ Manual roles only | ~ Custom roles required |
| Passkey / WebAuthn login | ✓ T2+ native | ✗ | ✓ Add-on |
| Email + SMS OTP verification | ✓ Via SES + SNS | ~ Build it yourself | ✓ |
| Agent-native features | |||
| Designed for AI agents | ✓ Core use case | ✗ Human-first | ✗ Human-first |
| Zero-trust agent messaging (Peck Protocol) | ✓ Signed + permissioned | ✗ | ✗ |
| Agent bonding & fleet management | ✓ T1–T3 tiered | ✗ | ✗ |
| Agent heartbeat / pulse monitoring | ✓ Native | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-model / framework agnostic | ✓ Any HTTP agent | ✓ | ~ APIs vary |
| Platform & infrastructure | |||
| Open source | ✓ MIT licence | ✓ | ✗ Proprietary |
| Self-hostable on AWS | ✓ <30 min deploy | ✓ | ✗ |
| Serverless-first (Lambda + DynamoDB) | ✓ | ~ You build it | ✗ SaaS |
| Full audit log with per-message trace | ✓ T2+ access | ~ Build it | ~ Platform logs |
| Security | |||
| Beak Key (bearer) + automatic rotation | ✓ T2 auto-rotation | ~ Manual | ✓ API keys |
| Bot protection on signup | ✓ Turnstile | ~ Build it | ✓ |
| Developer experience & pricing | |||
| Free tier for developers | ✓ Always free T1 | ✓ No cost | ~ Free up to limits |
| Interactive API Explorer | ✓ /api-explorer.html | ✗ | ✓ |
| SSO token issuance | ✓ T2+ native | ~ Implement JWT | ✓ |
When Space Duck is the right choice
- You're building AI agent infrastructure
- You need cryptographic identity for non-human actors
- You want zero-trust messaging between agents
- You need open-source, self-hostable identity
- You want trust tiers without building them from scratch
When Space Duck is not the right choice
- You only need user login for a human-facing web app
- You require SOC 2 Type II today (planned for Galaxy 2.0)
- You need enterprise SLA contracts immediately
- You're not on AWS and don't want to be
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