Available Now: Zitadel Version 4 Release Candidate

Fabienne Bühler
Fabienne Bühler

CPO

  1. What is Zitadel?
  2. Why Zitadel?
  3. How often does Zitadel release software?
  4. What features are available with Zitadel V4 RC?
  5. Where can I find more information about Zitadel's roadmap?
    1. Some Exciting News
  6. How can I try out and contribute to Zitadel?
  7. What is Zitadel's support model?

At Zitadel we take customer feedback and requests from our community members as the driving force for our work. Keeping that in mind today, we are happy to announce the release of Zitadel Version 4 (Release Candidate) that brings in Service Ping, the new resource-based API, Zitadel's custom login and four new SDK's.

What is Zitadel?

Zitadel is an open-source identity and access management (IAM) platform that simplifies identity infrastructure for cloud-native and modern applications, providing enterprise-grade security and multi-tenancy support with deployment flexibility and developer-first design.

Why Zitadel?

Some key reasons why Enterprises choose Zitadel as their IAM solution.

  • Eliminate expensive infrastructure development and deployment by using the Self-hosted option.
  • Built-in enterprise security features.
  • Ready-made compliance controls.
  • Professional support and maintenance.
  • More flexible and a transparent pricing model.
  • Open-source transparency.
  • Better multi-tenancy support.
  • More developer-friendly.
  • Modern, API-first architecture.

How often does Zitadel release software?

We release a new major version of our software every three months. This predictable schedule allows us to introduce significant features and enhancements in a structured way.

What we are releasing today is a release candidate. This is a feature-complete version that we believe is ready for public release, made available to our customers and community for widespread testing.

This phase is critical for ensuring the quality of the final release. We have two main objectives:

  • Community Feedback and Bug Fixing: This is when we rely on your feedback. By testing the RC in your own environments, you help us find and fix bugs and other issues we may have missed. Your active participation is crucial for stabilizing the new version.
  • Enhanced Internal Testing: While the community provides feedback, our internal teams conduct enhanced quality assurance. This includes in-depth feature validation, rigorous testing of upgrade paths from previous versions, and comprehensive performance and benchmark testing.

The goal of this phase is to use both community feedback and internal testing to ensure the new release is robust, bug-free, and performs well, so our customers can upgrade with confidence.

What features are available with Zitadel V4 RC?

Zitadel V4 RC Release Notes

  • You can find more information about the release in our release notes.

The following features are now available with Zitadel Version 4 Release Candidate (RC) for testing in your non-production environments (Zitadel cloud or Self-Hosted).

Service Ping

  • We have added Service Ping for self-hosted customers which lets your instance(s) send us anonymised data about how it's performing and how you are using it. You can choose what info to share, from basic details like your domain and version to more advanced metrics, or turn it off entirely. This will set a foundation for future improvements like advanced analytics and predictive threat detection.
  • If the feature is enabled, the base information will always be sent and it includes the following data that is sent back to us:
    • Your systemID
    • The currently run version of ZITADEL
    • Information on all instances
      • Instance Id
      • Creation Date
      • Domains

Resource-based API

  • Our new resource-based API offers flexibility when performing resource management tasks (i.e. user creation, instance creation, permission management) that echo across the Zitadel platform.
  • The API and its services use a resource-oriented design. This means that the API is designed around resources, which are the key entities in the system. Each resource has a unique identifier and a set of properties that describe the resource. The entire lifecycle of a resource can be managed using the API.
  • With this feature, all resources now have their own supporting service. This limits impact to other aspects of the business as it runs in parallel to produce a separation of concern. Whereas the old API required you to have the full scope to update the resource, this new resource-based API no longer hinders such workflows as you can partially update resources as you need.
  • You can migrate from v1 to v2 API's as well.
  • If you are interested in applying this to your own resource-based implementation, read more here about our API Design.
  • We would be interested in getting your feedback as we look forward to provide connectRPC support with and without the use of SDK's going forward.

Resource Based

New SDK's

  • We are pleased to announce the availability of new SDK's for Java, Python, PHP, and Ruby! These SDKs empower your Zitadel projects by simplifying API interactions and promoting efficient development workflows.
  • Try out our various other SDK examples that best fit suit your use-case.

Customer Login

  • Few months ago we had announced the availability of Custom Login and now Zitadel's Custom Login is the default login experience for both cloud and self-hosted customers to benefit from the added flexibility and customisation. Get started by adding a custom login to your Zitadel instance.

Where can I find more information about Zitadel's roadmap?

Some Exciting News

We are also excited to announce a brand new Beta Tester program. This program will provide you access to the upcoming features, designs, and prototypes before they are ready for general release. You can test them and provide direct feedback and/or input to the Zitadel Product Team. If you are interested in having a direct influence on the future roadmap of Zitadel, please apply today.

How can I try out and contribute to Zitadel?

  • Read our documentation and learn how you can setup, customise, and integrate authentication and authorisation to your project.

  • We would love to see you being a part of the Zitadel community and you can reach us on

What is Zitadel's support model?

It's important to note that support may differ depending on the feature, and not all features may be fully supported. We always strive to provide the best support possible for our customers and community, but we may not be able to provide immediate or comprehensive support for all features. Also the support may differ depending on your contracts.

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