Our story

Founded at the University of Bath 30 years ago, OpenAthens began its journey in 1995 with the “Athena Project”—a visionary initiative designed to simplify access to digital content as the Internet became an integral part of daily life.

Today, OpenAthens is recognized as the pioneer of federated single sign-on, continuing to lead in secure authentication. What started as the Athena Project has evolved into OpenAthens’ flagship product, OpenAthens Compass – a trusted solution used by more than 3,200 libraries in almost every country in the world.

More about us

The team at OpenAthens develops and supports identity and access management software. We are proudly part of Jisc.

Our mission

We exist to remove barriers to knowledge and connect people to information. Over 3,200 organizations use our software, equating to a worldwide network of millions of end-users. We strive to improve the end-user experience of students, patrons and employees.

Our vision

To further unite the two areas of our customer base – that of publishers (service providers) with organizations such as libraries, universities, hospitals and research companies (identity providers). Together, the goal is to create a seamless end-user journey for people accessing password-protected e-resources across all platforms and publications.

Our memberships

OpenAthens works in collaboration with these membership organizations for the benefit of our customers.

Our memberships

Our resellers

OpenAthens works in collaboration with a range of resellers worldwide. We are very proud of our global collaborations as they assist us in supporting our customers worldwide.

Our resellers

Take a look at our history

30 years of OpenAthens: A timeline of milestones, growth & global impact

Take a journey through 30 years of OpenAthens, from our early innovations to becoming a trusted access management solution used worldwide. This animated timeline highlights major service milestones, including the dates when some of our largest customers joined us, and the story of our global expansion. Discover the evolution of OpenAthens.

Our team

OpenAthens has a dedicated team of developers, quality assurance analysts, support analysts, trainers, account managers, sales consultants and marketers. All are driven to benefit our customers and deliver outstanding service

Meet the team