Permify
by Permify · Open-source, Zanzibar-inspired fine-grained authorisation service
BenchRank score
Screenshots of Permify
Homepage
Overview
Permify is an open-source authorisation service that keeps access control out of application code. Permissions are modelled in its own schema language, which supports RBAC, ABAC and ReBAC, with authorisation data stored as relationships in a central permission database modelled on Google Zanzibar. A Check API performs access checks from anywhere in the stack.
- Best for
- Engineering teams that want centralised fine-grained authorisation instead of permissions in app code
- Pricing
- No pricing is shown on the captured page.
- Runs on
- Self-hosted
Strengths and trade-offs
Strengths
- One schema language covering RBAC, ABAC and ReBAC
- Central permission database modelled on Google Zanzibar
- Check API runs access checks from anywhere in the stack
- Open source, with public docs, playground and Discord
Trade-offs
- Acquired by FusionAuth; the site says nothing about future direction
- No pricing, plans or licence terms shown anywhere on the page
- Adds a separate service to run and keep in sync with your data
- Claims of fast response times come with no published figures
How Permify markets itself
A structured read of the promise, proof and page design on Permify’s captured homepage.
Homepage capture
“Authorization Without Extra Engineering Resources”
- Angle: Outcome / benefit-led
- Hero: Code snippet
Pricing
Published plans and prices from Permify’s own pricing page.
How this score is made up
Each dimension is scored out of 100 and combined into the headline score using fixed weights.
MCP support
Whether an agent can drive the product through the Model Context Protocol, and how much setup that takes.
API quality
Public API surface: machine-readable spec, official SDKs, documented auth, errors, rate limits and versioning.
Documentation
Publicly reachable docs — coverage, freshness, code samples and machine readability.
Agent friendliness
How readable the site is to an automated client: llms.txt, structured data, server-rendered content, crawler access.
Pricing transparency
Whether real prices are published, self-serve signup exists, and usage costs are knowable without a sales call.
Changelog
A public, dated record of what shipped and when — the clearest signal that a product is still alive.
Marketing site structure
Whether the site answers a buyer's questions: clear positioning, the pages that matter, and accessibility.
Page speed
How fast the site loads for real visitors: Chrome UX Report 75th-percentile LCP, INP and CLS, with a Lighthouse mobile run standing in where a site has too little traffic for field data.
Operational trust
Status page and incident history, security disclosure, compliance and data-processing documentation.
Measured, but not part of the score
Useful to know, but not a mark for or against the product — so these do not affect the ranking.
Openness
Source availability, self-hosting, data export and open standards. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — paid SaaS is not worse for being paid SaaS.
Maintenance
Release cadence and repository activity. Scored and shown, but not part of the composite — it is only measurable for open repositories.
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Where this comes from
The Permify pages BenchRank reads when it scores the product — its documentation, release notes, status and security pages, and its repository where there is one.
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