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Best Clerk alternatives (2026)

Clerk is our top-ranked auth, but past 50,000 monthly retained users per app you move to Pro ($25/mo, or $20/mo billed annually) and pay $0.02 per extra user, the free Hobby plan has no MFA or passkeys, and your users live in Clerk’s hosted service. These alternatives cover open-source libraries that keep users in your own database (Better Auth, Auth.js), auth bundled with a backend (Supabase Auth, Firebase Authentication) and hosted services with bigger free tiers or SSO included (WorkOS, Kinde, Auth0, Descope, Stytch). Ranked by our evidence-based score, with Clerk shown last for reference.

Editorial picks for this use case. See each tool page for its score breakdown. Last updated 2026-10-25.

#1
B
Better Auth open source
Open-source TypeScript auth framework
Verified
86
/ 100
 #2
S
Supabase Auth open source
Auth built into your Supabase Postgres, with 50,000 free MAU
Verified
85
/ 100
 #3
W
WorkOS
Enterprise-ready auth and SSO
Verified
78
/ 100
 #4
K
Kinde
Auth, B2B organizations and billing in one, with 10,500 free MAU
Verified
76
/ 100
 #5
F
Firebase Authentication
Google's drop-in auth for web and mobile apps
Verified
74
/ 100
 #6
A
Auth.js (NextAuth.js) open source
The classic open-source auth library for Next.js, now part of Better Auth
Verified
73
/ 100
 #7
A
Auth0
Identity platform by Okta
Verified
70
/ 100
 #8
D
Descope
Drag-and-drop auth flows, plus MCP and AI-agent auth
Verified
70
/ 100
 #9
S
Stytch
Authentication and fraud prevention
Verified
68
/ 100
 #10
C
Clerk
User management and authentication
Verified
87
/ 100

The short version

Better Auth (86) is the closest swap if you want to own your users: an MIT-licensed TypeScript library that stores users in your own database with no per-user fees, and it publishes a step-by-step Clerk migration guide. Supabase Auth (85) is the pick if your app already runs on Supabase, with 50,000 MAU on the Free plan and 100,000 included on Pro. WorkOS (78) has the biggest hosted free tier (AuthKit free up to 1 million users). Kinde (76) bundles organizations and billing with a 10,500 MAU free plan, Firebase Authentication (74) suits mobile apps in the Google ecosystem, Auth.js (73) is the classic free Next.js library (now part of Better Auth), Auth0 (70) is the enterprise veteran, Descope (70) includes SSO connections on its free plan, and Stytch (68) is pay as you go with no hard caps. Clerk itself scores 87 and is still our top-ranked auth, so switch for a concrete reason, not by default.

Why people look for a Clerk alternative

Four reasons come up most. The per-user bill past the free tier: Clerk’s Hobby plan is free up to 50,000 monthly retained users (MRU) per app; past that you must move to Pro ($25/mo, or $20/mo billed annually), which includes 50,000 MRU per app and then charges $0.02 per MRU from 50,001 to 100,000, $0.018 up to 1 million, $0.015 up to 10 million and $0.012 after that. Clerk gives a one-month grace period. Features missing on the free plan: Hobby has no multi-factor authentication, passkeys, custom email templates or user bans, sessions are fixed at 7 days, social connections are capped at 3, and the prebuilt UI shows “Secured by Clerk” branding. B2B costs: Pro includes 1 SSO connection per app, then $75/mo each (2–15); organizations are free for 100 monthly retained orgs with up to 20 members each, and the Enhanced B2B add-on is $100/mo ($85 billed annually) with $1/mo per extra org. Owning the data: Clerk is hosted and proprietary, so users live in Clerk rather than your own database. One thing in Clerk’s favor when you compare: it counts retained users, not raw MAU, so someone who signs up and never comes back after the first day isn’t billed.

Quick picks by need

Own your users, no per-user fees: Better Auth (MIT, about 30,300 GitHub stars); its optional Infrastructure add-on has a free Starter tier and a $20/mo Pro tier for a dashboard, audit logs and security detection. Already on Supabase: Supabase Auth, or keep Clerk and connect it to Supabase as a third-party auth provider (see below). Biggest hosted free tier: WorkOS AuthKit, free for the first 1 million users and $2,500/mo per additional million. B2B with organizations and billing on a budget: Kinde, whose Plus plan ($75/mo) includes enterprise SSO. Mobile apps on Google: Firebase Authentication. An existing NextAuth app: Auth.js keeps working and is free (ISC), but its site says the project is now part of Better Auth, so new builds should start there. Enterprise checklists: Auth0. SSO on a free plan: Descope (3 SSO connections free) or Stytch (5 SSO or SCIM connections free).

Cost at small scale: the free plans

Clerk Hobby: 50,000 MRU per app, unlimited apps, up to 3 dashboard seats, no card. Better Auth and Auth.js: free open-source libraries; you pay only for your own database and hosting. WorkOS AuthKit: free up to 1 million active users. Supabase Free: 50,000 MAU and basic MFA, but free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity and you get 2 active projects. Firebase Authentication: no-cost on the Spark plan, and with Identity Platform no-cost up to 50K MAU (50 MAU for SAML/OIDC sign-ins). Auth0 Free: up to 25,000 MAU, 1 custom domain, 5 organizations and 1 enterprise connection. Kinde Free: 10,500 MAU with MFA, organizations and your own custom domain, no card. Stytch: 10,000 monthly active users and AI agents, unlimited organizations and 5 SSO or SCIM connections free, with no hard caps. Descope Free Forever: 7,500 MAU, 10 tenants and 3 SSO connections with no overages; you must upgrade past the limits. Note that “MAU” and Clerk’s “MRU” are counted differently, so the same app can show a lower number on Clerk.

Cost at 100,000 users: the first real bill

These are computed from each vendor’s list rates for 100,000 monthly users on the first paid plan that covers them. Clerk Pro: $25 + 50,000 extra MRU × $0.02 = about $1,025/mo (about $1,020 billed annually), and less if many sign-ups never return. Supabase Pro: $25/mo includes 100,000 MAU (and the database, with one small compute instance). WorkOS AuthKit: $0, since the first million users are free. Firebase with Identity Platform: the first 50,000 MAU are free and the next 50,000 cost $0.0055 each, about $275/mo for email, phone, anonymous and social sign-in. Kinde Pro: $25 + 89,500 extra MAU × $0.0175 = about $1,591/mo, but users you bill through Kinde don’t count toward MAU (Kinde takes 0.7% per transaction instead). Descope Pro: from $249/mo billed annually with 10,000 MAU, then $0.05 per MAU, about $4,749/mo at list rates. Better Auth and Auth.js: $0 in per-user fees. Auth0 and Stytch: Auth0’s pricing page shows B2C Essentials from $35/mo (500 MAU) and Professional from $240/mo, but its calculator stops at 30,000+ MAU, and Stytch lists volume discounts without a per-MAU rate, so we don’t quote a 100,000-user figure for either.

Moving your users off Clerk

Export: in the Clerk Dashboard, admins can export a CSV of the application’s users that includes their hashed passwords (Clerk doesn’t export plaintext passwords). Clerk hashes passwords with bcrypt, so any target that imports bcrypt hashes can keep existing passwords working. To Better Auth: its Clerk guide configures Better Auth to verify bcrypt hashes and runs a script over the exported CSV to create users and accounts; the migration invalidates all active sessions, and the guide doesn’t yet cover organizations. To WorkOS: npx workos migrations export clerk turns the Clerk CSV into a migration package and import-package loads users, organizations and memberships with their bcrypt digests; WorkOS doesn’t support SMS second factors, so those users switch to email Magic Auth or a TOTP app. To Kinde: its Clerk guide maps the CSV columns (for example password_digest to hashed_password) and imports bcrypt hashes directly, so a bulk import is recommended. To Descope: its Clerk guide maps users, organizations and roles from the Dashboard CSV or the Clerk API. To Firebase: firebase auth:import accepts BCRYPT hashes. Users who sign in with Google, GitHub or another OAuth provider reconnect the same provider on the new system. Plan for everyone to be signed out once at cutover, and test with a few accounts first.

Keep Clerk, change around it

Switching auth is not the only fix. If the reason is your database, Supabase’s docs say Clerk can be used as a third-party authentication provider alongside Supabase Auth or standalone, with row-level security policies reading claims from Clerk’s session token; Supabase counts these as third-party MAUs (50,000 on Free, 100,000 on Pro, then $0.00325 each). If the reason is price at an early stage, Clerk for Startups offers discounts through partners such as Stripe Atlas and Y Combinator for companies up to a year after launch with up to $5 million in venture funding. Clerk Billing (0.7% of billing volume on top of Stripe’s fees) can also replace a separate billing integration.

When to stay on Clerk

Stay if you are under 50,000 retained users per app, if the prebuilt sign-in, user profile and organization components save you real time in Next.js or React, or if one included SSO connection on Pro covers your B2B customers. Move when the per-user bill grows faster than revenue (Better Auth, Supabase Auth or WorkOS cost far less at 100,000 users), when you want users in your own database (Better Auth, Auth.js, Supabase Auth), or when you need MFA on a free plan (Supabase, Kinde and Descope include it).

Side-by-side comparison

ToolScoreFree tierPricingBest for
Better Auth86Yes: MIT library free to self-host; Infrastructure Starter $0Library free; optional Infrastructure Pro $20/moOwning auth in your own database with no per-user fees
Supabase Auth85Yes: 50,000 monthly active users on the Supabase Free plan (free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity, 2 active projects max)Included in Supabase plans: Free $0 (50,000 MAU); Pro from $25/mo (100,000 MAU, then $0.00325 per MAU); Team from $599/mo; Enterprise custom. Advanced phone MFA, SAML SSO and leaked-password protection are paid featuresApps already on Supabase, or vibe-coded apps from Lovable and Bolt that need sign-in tied to row-level security
WorkOS78Yes: AuthKit free up to 1M MAUSSO/Directory Sync $125/connection/mo (volume discounts)SaaS that will sell to enterprises needing SSO/SCIM
Kinde76Yes: 10,500 MAU free forever, no credit card, including social login, MFA, organizations and custom domainFree $0 (10,500 MAU); Pro $25/mo (10,500 MAU included, then $0.0175 per extra MAU); Plus $75/mo (free enterprise SSO); Scale $250/mo; billing customers through Kinde adds 0.5–0.7% per transaction (0.7% Free/Pro, 0.6% Plus, 0.5% Scale), and those billed users' MAU is freeSaaS founders who want auth, orgs and subscription billing from one provider
Firebase Authentication74Yes: no-cost on the Spark plan; with Identity Platform free up to 50K MAU (Spark caps Identity Platform at 3,000 daily active users, and password-reset emails at 150/day)No-cost Spark plan; with Identity Platform, no-cost up to 50K MAU (50 MAU for SAML/OIDC), then Google Cloud pricing; phone verification SMS is Blaze (pay-as-you-go) only and billed per SMSMobile and Flutter apps, or projects already on Firebase and Google Cloud
Auth.js (NextAuth.js)73Yes: fully free and open source, no per-user feesFree (ISC open source); you host it and pay only for your own databaseExisting Next.js apps already on next-auth; new projects should look at Better Auth first
Auth070Yes: up to 25,000 MAUEssentials from $35/mo (B2C, 500 MAU) or $150/mo (B2B)Enterprise identity requirements and compliance
Descope70Yes: 7,500 MAU, 10 tenants and 3 SSO connections free forever, no overages (upgrade required past limits)Free Forever $0 (7,500 MAU, 10 tenants, 3 SSO connections, hard limits); Pro from $249/mo billed annually (10,000 MAU, then $0.05/MAU); Growth from $799/mo (25,000 MAU); Enterprise customB2B apps and MCP servers that need tenant SSO or agent auth without writing flows by hand
Stytch68Yes: 10,000 MAU, 5 SSO/SCIM connectionsUsage-based above free allowance; SSO/SCIM $125/connectionPasswordless and fraud-aware auth
Clerk87Yes: 50,000 monthly retained users per appPro $25/mo ($20 annual), then $0.02/MRU over 50KThe fastest auth for Next.js/React SaaS

FAQ

What is the best Clerk alternatives in 2026?
Our top pick is Better Auth (score 86/100): Open-source TypeScript auth framework. Runners-up: Supabase Auth, WorkOS, Kinde, Firebase Authentication, Auth.js (NextAuth.js), Auth0, Descope, Stytch, Clerk.
Is Better Auth free?
Better Auth free tier: Yes: MIT library free to self-host; Infrastructure Starter $0. Paid pricing: Library free; optional Infrastructure Pro $20/mo.
Is Supabase Auth free?
Supabase Auth free tier: Yes: 50,000 monthly active users on the Supabase Free plan (free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity, 2 active projects max). Paid pricing: Included in Supabase plans: Free $0 (50,000 MAU); Pro from $25/mo (100,000 MAU, then $0.00325 per MAU); Team from $599/mo; Enterprise custom. Advanced phone MFA, SAML SSO and leaked-password protection are paid features.
Is WorkOS free?
WorkOS free tier: Yes: AuthKit free up to 1M MAU. Paid pricing: SSO/Directory Sync $125/connection/mo (volume discounts).
How are these tools ranked?
Each tool is scored out of 100 on fit, vibe-coder friendliness, output quality, pricing, ecosystem, momentum and code ownership, using desk research of official docs and pricing pages. Affiliate status never affects scores.
What is the best alternative to Clerk?
Better Auth, at 86 in our ranking, if you want users in your own database with no per-user fees, and it publishes an official Clerk migration guide. Supabase Auth (85) is the pick if your app already runs on Supabase, and WorkOS (78) has the biggest hosted free tier, free up to 1 million users.
Is there a free alternative to Clerk?
Yes. Better Auth (MIT) and Auth.js (ISC) are free open-source libraries; you pay only for your own database. Among hosted services, WorkOS AuthKit is free up to 1 million users, Supabase Auth and Firebase Authentication (with Identity Platform) up to 50,000 MAU, Auth0 up to 25,000 MAU, Kinde 10,500, Stytch 10,000 and Descope 7,500.
How much does Clerk cost for 100,000 users?
About $1,025 a month on Pro billed monthly, computed from Clerk’s list rates: $25 for the plan, which includes 50,000 monthly retained users per app, plus $0.02 for each of the next 50,000. Billed annually it is about $1,020. Clerk counts only users who come back 24 hours or more after signing up, so the real number of billed users is often lower than your MAU.
Can I migrate off Clerk without resetting passwords?
Usually, yes. Clerk’s Dashboard export includes bcrypt password hashes, and Better Auth, WorkOS, Kinde and Firebase’s auth:import can all use bcrypt hashes, so existing passwords keep working. Active sessions end at cutover, OAuth users reconnect the same provider, and on WorkOS users with SMS second factors re-enroll with a TOTP app or email.
Can I use Clerk with Supabase?
Yes. Supabase supports Clerk as a third-party auth provider, alongside Supabase Auth or on its own, and your row-level security policies can read claims from Clerk session tokens. Supabase bills these as third-party MAUs: 50,000 included on Free and 100,000 on Pro, then $0.00325 each.

Sources (checked Oct 17, 2026)

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