zitadel/docs/docs/guides/overview.mdx

---
title: Overview
---

Most applications need to know the identity of a user for access control, to securely store their data in the cloud, and provide the same personalized experience across all of the user's devices.

With ZITADEL you can rely on a hardened and extensible turnkey solution to solve all of your authentication and authorization needs.
We provide you with a wide range of out of the box features to accelerate your project. Multi-tenancy with branding customization, secure login, self-service, OpenID Connect, OAuth2.x, SAML2, Passwordless with FIDO2 (including Passkeys), OTP, U2F, and an unlimited audit trail is there for you, ready to use.
Execute custom code on selected events within ZITADEL to ensure perfect compatibility with your unique and complex software landscape and data models.

## Get Started

### Quick Start Guide

Follow our [Quick Start Guide](/guides/start/quickstart).

### Cloud or Self-Hosting

ZITADEL can be used in two ways:

- Use the ZITADEL Cloud, our public cloud service. Use the free tier to get started in minutes.
- Deploy a self-hosted ZITADEL for full control, wherever you like.

If you are unsure, opt for the gracious free tier of [ZITADEL Cloud](./manage/cloud/overview).

Choose [ZITADEL Cloud](./manage/cloud/overview) if you want:

- A turnkey solution that just works
- A gracious free tier with a great pay-as-you-go option
- Global scalability without the headache of running it yourself
- Data-residency compliance for your customers

Choose [ZITADEL Self-Hosted](/self-hosting/deploy/overview) if you want:

- Total control over all components and your data
- To run ZITADEL in air-gapped or regulated environments
- Flexibility when you deploy updates

## Get Help

Join our [Discord Chat](https://zitadel.com/chat) or open a [Discussion](https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/discussions) on Github to get help from the community and the team behind ZITADEL.

Cloud and Enterprise customers can additionally reach us privately via the [Support communication channels](/legal/support-services).

## Contribute

ZITADEL is open source — and so is the documentation.

Should you happen to stumble over an incorrectness, a spelling mistake, a hard-to-understand text passage, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or [contribute a corresponding change](https://github.com/zitadel/zitadel/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md).