How Makers Build
Check my stackPlan my stack
Menu
Foundation

Authentication

Let users sign up, sign in and stay signed in — without building password storage, sessions and OAuth yourself.

Ask your AI about this, with this page as the source:ChatGPT ↗Claude ↗Perplexity ↗

The real choice

Hosted service or library in your own app. Hosted services give you UI, MFA and security updates for a monthly bill and some lock-in; libraries keep users in your own database for free, and you own the upkeep.

Pick by situation

Tap the ones that are you — the tools that fit light up below.
  • You're on Next.js or React and want sign-in, profiles and teams working todayClerk
  • Your data is already in Supabase or FirebaseSupabaseFirebase
  • You want users in your own database and no per-user billBetter Auth
  • You sell to companies whose IT team will ask for SAML SSO or SCIMWorkOSAuth0

The contenders

Grouped by the side of the choice they answer, not ranked. Open a row for when to use it, the trade-off and what makers say.

ToolBest for
Hosted service3
Clerkservice · free tierDropping prebuilt sign-in, profile and organization UI into a React or Next.js app.307+11 open source$0Hobby2.1M/wk+50% vs npm

Use it whenYou want prebuilt components, user profiles and organizations out of the box.

Trade-offPer-user pricing grows with you; users live in Clerk, not your database.

llms.txtMCPCLIIn Replit

Used by AgentQL, AISpace, Backdrop, bottest.ai, Brew and 302 more · in 11 open-source projects.

Clerk in full →Plans and calculator →vs Supabase →vs Better Auth →
The team loves Clerk for its intuitive interface, seamless integration, and efficient management of administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on building groundbreaking solutions.
Garple, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Auth0service · free tierComplex identity needs and enterprise compliance.21+17 open source$0Free1.8M/wk−25% vs npm

Use it whenA customer's security review asks for certifications and identity features a younger provider can't show.

Trade-offHeavier to configure and pricier than newer options for a solo project.

llms.txtMCP

Used by Ada.im, Brokee, Chronicle, ClawTeams, DGi and 16 more · in 17 open-source projects.

Auth0 in full →Plans and calculator →vs Clerk →vs Supabase →
A huge thanks to Auth0 for helping us out with the authentication flow. They were really quick with the onboarding process and even with the support tickets.
SeyftAI, the makerSep 2026 ↗
WorkOSservice · free tierB2B SaaS that will need enterprise SSO and directory sync.19+11 open source$0AuthKit2.9M/wk+109% vs npm

Use it whenYour first big customer asks for SAML or SCIM.

Trade-offIts free tier covers basic sign-in, but enterprise SSO and directory sync are priced per connection — worth it once a customer pays for them.

llms.txtMCP

Used by Almanac, Cherry Blossom, Flipt Cloud, Fluency, GAIA and 14 more · in 11 open-source projects.

WorkOS in full →Plans and calculator →vs Clerk →vs Supabase →
We use WorkOS for the enterprise identity pieces of Harden, so customers can get the access controls they need without us building that layer from scratch.
Harden, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Bundled with your backend2
Supabaseplatform · open source · free tierApps already on Supabase — auth is part of the same project as the database.13$0Free25.4M/wk+96% vs npm

Use it whenYou want row-level security in Postgres tied directly to the signed-in user.

Trade-offLess polished UI components than dedicated auth services.

llms.txtMCPCLIIn Bolt, Lovable, v0

Used by BeforeSunset AI, CatDoes, giselle, Greta, Lamatic.ai and 8 more.

Supabase in full →Plans and calculator →vs Clerk →vs Better Auth →
Our real-time database and auth backbone. Supabase’s hosted PostgreSQL and Edge Functions give us version control, user management, and lightning-fast reads/writes out of the box.
Snapdeck, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Firebaseplatform · free tierMobile and client-heavy apps already using Firebase.4$0Blaze (pay as you go)8.8M/wk−21% vs npm

Use it whenYour app talks to Firestore straight from the client and you want sign-in rules in the same place.

Trade-offTies your user model to Google's ecosystem.

llms.txtIn Lovable

Used by Bricks, Exstats, Remy AI, Slashy.

Firebase in full →Plans and calculator →
We chose Firebase because its authentication tooling is reliable, widely supported, and straightforward to integrate across web and mobile. It helped us ship account access without building identity infrastructure from scratch.
Slashy, the makerSep 2026 ↗
Library in your app1
Better Authlibrary · open source · free tierTypeScript apps that want users and sessions in their own database, at no cost.6+94 open source$0Self-hosted (open source)6.5M/wk8.4× vs npm

Use it whenYou'd rather own the code than pay per user.

Trade-offYou host it and keep it patched; UI is yours to build.

llms.txt

Used by Beplan, Clarm, PicMotionAI, Prism AI, Psyche and 1 more · in 94 open-source projects.

Better Auth in full →Plans and calculator →vs Clerk →vs Supabase →
Authentication is always a time sink, but not with better_auth. Simple, secure, and extendable. Got magic links and login flow done in under an hour.
PicMotionAI, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Cost: the cheapest plan that fits monthly active users 10k MAU, from list prices. Try your own numbers →

Cost as you grow

Each contender's cheapest usable plan as usage rises.

$0$500$2,000$5,000$10,0001001k5k10k25k50k100k250k1M
Auth0WorkOSBetter AuthFirebaseSupabaseClerkx: monthly active users (MAU) · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers

Who switches to what

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "X to Y" — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only. Pick a flow to see its pull requests.

Firebase → Supabase: 298 pull requestsSupabase → Firebase: 113 pull requestsSupabase → Clerk: 54 pull requestsClerk → Supabase: 53 pull requestsClerk → Better Auth: 33 pull requestsSupabase → Better Auth: 19 pull requestsFirebase → Clerk: 9 pull requestsClerk → Firebase: 8 pull requestsFirebase 307Supabase 186Clerk 94Supabase 351Firebase 121Clerk 63Better Auth 52Moving fromMoving to
Firebase → Supabase298 PRs
All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

Before you choose

How to approach it

Start with email + one social login (Google or GitHub). Keep the user record in your own database even when a hosted service owns sign-in, so you can switch later. Add organizations and SSO only when a paying customer asks.

Common mistakes
  • Keeping users only inside the auth provider — with no row in your own database, every query that joins users goes through their API, and moving later means a password-reset email to everyone.
  • Building organizations, roles and SSO before a paying customer asks for them.
  • Comparing only free tiers; per-monthly-active-user pricing is what you pay once a free product gets traffic.

Other options

Real choices most makers here won't need to weigh.

KindeHosted serviceAuth that also covers feature flags and organizations in one place.7 makers' productsPropelAuthHosted serviceB2B products where every customer is an organization with members, roles, invites and SAML.7 makers' productsStytchHosted servicePasswordless sign-in (magic links, one-time codes, passkeys) and B2B SSO through APIs, free up to 10,000 monthly active users.5 makers' productsKeycloakOpen-source serviceA self-hosted identity server with SSO, OpenID Connect, SAML and user federation for several apps at once.3 makers' productsHexclave (Stack Auth)Open-source serviceA Clerk-style developer experience you can also self-host.2 makers' productsLogtoOpen-source serviceOpen-source OIDC auth with hosted sign-in pages, organizations and roles, on a cloud with 50,000 free monthly active users or on your own servers.2 makers' productsSuperTokensOpen-source serviceOpen-source auth with prebuilt login UI and backend SDKs, self-hosted for free or on their cloud.1 makers' productDescopeHosted serviceLogin, MFA and SSO flows designed in a visual drag-and-drop editor instead of code.1 makers' productFronteggHosted serviceB2B SaaS that wants a ready-made admin portal where each customer manages its own users, roles and SSO.1 makers' productAuth.jsLibrary in your appExisting Next.js apps built on NextAuth, and teams that want OAuth sign-in with users in their own database.Amazon CognitoHosted serviceUser sign-up and sign-in for apps already built on AWS, with a permanent free tier of 10,000 monthly active users.ZitadelOpen-source serviceAn open-source identity server with organizations (multi-tenancy), passkeys and SSO built in, as a hosted cloud or on your own servers.authentikOpen-source serviceA self-hosted identity provider that adds single sign-on in front of many apps, via OIDC, SAML, LDAP or a proxy.BoxyHQLibrary in your appAdding enterprise SAML SSO and SCIM directory sync to an existing login system, self-hosted for free.

Decided alongside

What the 359 makers' products here chose for their other decisions.

Frontend Framework195 productsNext.js177React26Astro11
Transactional Email163 productsResend115SendGrid42Postmark29
Database128 productsSupabase50Convex23Neon19
Hosting99 productsCloudflare30Amazon Web Services27Fly.io11
Payments95 productsStripe67Dodo Payments7Paddle7
LLM API89 productsOpenAI API56Claude42Gemini API16
Product Analytics54 productsPostHog48Amplitude4Mixpanel2
Web Analytics40 productsGoogle Analytics17Plausible Analytics10Cloudflare Web Analytics5