Getting Started
Getting Started with Skycloak

Getting Started with Skycloak

Welcome to Skycloak! This guide walks you through your first login, the onboarding process, and helps you understand how to make the most of your managed Keycloak platform. In just a few minutes, you’ll have your workspace ready for secure identity management.

Your First Login

Creating Your Account

When you first sign up for Skycloak:

  1. Visit skycloak.io and click “Start Free Trial”
  2. Choose your sign-up method:
    • Email and password
    • Google OAuth
    • GitHub OAuth
  3. Verify your email (if using email sign-up)
  4. Pick your onboarding path on the welcome screen

The Onboarding Experience

After signing up, you land on a welcome screen that offers a choice of paths. Pick the one that matches how you want to start — both land on the same dashboard.

Onboarding welcome screen with the two path cards

The available paths adapt to your account, and you can bail out at any point with the “Skip, I know Keycloak” link at the bottom of the screen.

Branding your hosted login

At the top of the welcome screen, Skycloak offers to personalize your hosted login page. If your email is on a company domain, we detect it; either way you can upload your logo right there or click Skip branding and do it later from the Branding page.

Path 1: Sign-in for my app’s users (~3 minutes)

The fastest way to add login to an application you’re building:

  1. Pick your framework from a searchable grid — React, Angular, Vue, Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Node.js, Django, Spring Boot, .NET Core, FastAPI, Express, Laravel, Rails, Flask, WordPress, Drupal, and more. Each card links to its full integration guide.
  2. Using something else? Choose the Other / Not listed card — Skycloak creates a client and hands you generic OIDC credentials that work with any OIDC-compatible stack.
  3. Copy the snippet — you get a pre-configured OIDC client and a paste-ready code snippet for your framework. Users can log in as soon as it’s deployed.

Framework picker with the Other / Not listed option

Path 2: I know Keycloak, give me an instance (~4 minutes)

For teams who already run Keycloak and want the full console:

  • SSO to the admin console — sign in to Keycloak’s admin console with your Skycloak account; there are no separate admin credentials to manage
  • kcadm & Terraform snippets — ready-to-use automation examples for scripting your setup
  • Full feature-flag control — toggle Keycloak server features per cluster

Looking for employee SSO?

Workspace-level SSO for your own team (SAML/OIDC against your IdP) is configured after onboarding from the dashboard — see Workspace SSO.

Workspace Creation

Automatic Setup

Alongside onboarding, Skycloak automatically:

  1. Creates your workspace with a unique identifier
  2. Sets you up as the workspace owner
  3. Initiates your free trial — 21 days on the app path (a fully managed realm on the Shared Cluster), or 7 days on the Expert path (your own dedicated cluster). No credit card required, and both paths can be extended. If an Expert-path trial ends without an upgrade, the dedicated cluster is paused and then deleted 7 days later — we warn you by email first, and upgrading at any point during that week restores everything.

After Onboarding: Your Clusters Page

After onboarding, you land on your Clusters page — your workspace home. Depending on your path, your managed realm or your dedicated cluster is ready to open.

Clusters page

From here, the essential next steps are:

  1. Verify Your Email - Confirm your account email address (required to subscribe and for Admin Console SSO)
  2. Open Your Realm or Cluster - Click into it to see health, live metrics, and configuration
  3. Create Your First Application - Configure authentication for your app
  4. Configure Email Settings - Set up SMTP for user notifications
  5. Invite Team Members - Add colleagues from the Team page

Depending on your plan, you can also:

  • Add Custom Domain - Use your own domain (e.g., auth.yourcompany.com)
  • Add Custom Branding - Customize login pages with your brand
  • Extend Keycloak Capabilities - Install extensions for additional features
  • Brand Your Email Templates - Customize email notifications

Skipping Onboarding

If you’re joining an existing workspace via invitation:

  • The onboarding flow is automatically skipped
  • You’ll go directly to the workspace’s Clusters page
  • Your role and permissions are assigned based on the invitation

For experienced users signing up fresh:

  • Use “Skip onboarding for now” or “Skip — I know Keycloak” at any point
  • Your workspace will still be created automatically
  • You can always access features directly from the sidebar

Post-Onboarding Tips

Take Your Time

  • Each step in the Getting Started checklist has helpful guides
  • Progress is automatically tracked
  • You can complete tasks in any order (though some depend on others)

Use Help Resources

  • Documentation links throughout the dashboard
  • Email support at [email protected]
  • In-app tooltips for common questions

Common Patterns

For B2C Apps:

  1. Start with social login (Google, GitHub, etc.)
  2. Add email/password as fallback
  3. Enable user registration

For B2B Apps:

  1. Configure enterprise SSO from the dashboard after onboarding (Workspace SSO)
  2. Configure role-based access
  3. Enable MFA requirements

For Internal Tools:

  1. Connect to Active Directory/LDAP
  2. Set up employee groups
  3. Configure access policies

Troubleshooting Onboarding

Common Issues

  1. Email Not Received

    • Check spam/junk folders
    • Verify email address
    • Request resend from account settings

  2. Workspace Not Created

    • Refresh the page
    • Check your network connection
    • Contact support if issue persists

  3. Onboarding Stuck

Getting Help

During onboarding:

Next Steps After Onboarding

  1. Create Your Cluster:

  2. Configure Your Application:

  3. Customize Your Experience:

  4. Invite Your Team:

  5. Monitor and Optimize:

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Overview of Skycloak