Clerk

Drop-in authentication for modern JavaScript apps

Clerk is a complete authentication and user management platform for React, Next.js, and modern JavaScript frameworks. It provides pre-built UI for sign-in, sign-up, user profiles, organizations, MFA, passkeys, JWT sessions, webhooks, and billing. The Hobby plan supports up to 50,000 monthly retained users per app, with Pro, Business, and Enterprise tiers for growing teams.

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About Clerk

Clerk is a modern auth platform built for React, Next.js, Remix, and JavaScript frameworks with complete pre-built UI components handling the entire authentication flow.

Supports social login with 30+ providers, passwordless via magic links, multi-factor authentication, organization management with roles, SAML SSO, and domain verification.

Adding auth requires minimal code. Webhook events enable real-time reactions. Hobby includes up to 50K MRUs per app; Pro starts at $25/month and Business at $300/month.

editorial evaluation

Read our Clerk review (Score: 90)

Detailed hands-on evaluation by the aicoolies editorial team

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Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Clerk offers a generous Free Hobby tier supporting up to 50,000 Monthly Retained Users (MRUs) with 3 team seats. The Pro tier starts at $25/month including 50,000 MRUs ($0.02 per extra MRU) and 1 Enterprise SSO connection, while the Business tier starts at $300/month with 10 seats and SOC 2 reports. Custom enterprise plans offer dedicated SLAs and HIPAA compliance.

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Supported Platforms

React, Next.js, Remix, JavaScript

Explore categories, tags & use cases

Use Cases

Backend API Design API Integration

Alternatives

All Clerk alternatives →

Logto

Open-source auth infrastructure for modern apps

Logto is an open-source authentication and authorization platform built on OIDC and OAuth 2.1, serving as an alternative to Auth0, Cognito, and Firebase Auth. It provides pre-built sign-in flows with customizable UI, social login, Google One Tap, MFA, enterprise SSO via SAML, and role-based access control. SDKs cover 30+ frameworks including React, Next.js, Vue, Flutter, Go, and Python, with multi-tenancy support for SaaS applications.

freemiumOpen Source

Casdoor

Open-source IAM and SSO platform by Casbin

Casdoor is an open-source Identity and Access Management platform built by the Casbin community in Go and React. Supports OAuth 2.0, OIDC, SAML, CAS, LDAP, SCIM, WebAuthn, and MFA with a comprehensive web-based admin UI. Provides multi-tenant organization management, flexible RBAC and ABAC access control via Casbin models, and integrations with Google Workspace and Azure AD. Offers self-hosted deployment with optional managed cloud plans.

Open Source

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Side-by-Side Comparisons

Clerk

Supabase

Clerk vs Supabase Auth: Specialized Auth Product vs Backend-as-a-Service Identity

Clerk and Supabase both appear in “how should we do auth?” decisions, but only one is an auth-specialist product. Clerk sells authentication and user management as the core product. Supabase is a Postgres-centric backend platform that includes Auth alongside database, storage, realtime, and edge functions. This comparison helps teams decide whether to buy a dedicated auth layer or accept Supabase’s integrated auth as part of a broader BaaS stack.

ClerkSupabase

Clerk

Auth0

Clerk vs Auth0: Developer-First Auth Components vs Enterprise CIAM Platform

Clerk and Auth0 both solve authentication and user management, but they optimize for different buyers. Clerk is a component-first auth product built around drop-in UIs, modern app frameworks, and monthly retained users (MRU). Auth0 is Okta’s CIAM platform with deep enterprise identity, attack protection, and large-scale B2B/B2C configuration. This page helps a product team choose whether shipping auth quickly with prebuilt UX or owning a broader identity control plane is the higher-priority constraint.

ClerkAuth0

Clerk

Better Auth

Clerk vs Better Auth — Managed Auth Platform vs Self-Hosted TypeScript Library

Clerk and Better Auth represent the managed versus self-hosted divide in modern authentication. Clerk is a hosted platform with pre-built UI components, session management, and user dashboards that gets teams to production fast with minimal code. Better Auth is an open-source TypeScript library offering the same breadth of features including passkeys, two-factor auth, and RBAC but running entirely on your own infrastructure with zero vendor dependency.

ClerkBetter Auth

Kinde

Clerk

Kinde vs Clerk — Bundled Auth Platform vs Developer-First Authentication SDK

Kinde and Clerk compete for the modern SaaS authentication market but with different bundling strategies. Kinde combines authentication, feature flags, and billing management into a single platform with a generous 10,500 MAU free tier. Clerk focuses exclusively on authentication with the most polished developer experience, pre-built UI components, and deep framework integrations that minimize implementation effort for any application type.

KindeClerk

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Sources & verification

Sources checked: August 26, 2026
Content verified: August 26, 2026

Verification dates are editorial checks. Routine CMS saves and automatic updatedAt timestamps do not advance them.

FAQ

What is Clerk?

Is Clerk free?

Clerk offers a free tier alongside paid plans. Clerk offers a generous Free Hobby tier supporting up to 50,000 Monthly Retained Users (MRUs) with 3 team seats. The Pro tier starts at $25/month including 50,000 MRUs ($0.02 per extra MRU) and 1 Enterprise SSO connection, while the Business tier starts at $300/month with 10 seats and SOC 2 reports. Custom enterprise plans offer dedicated SLAs and HIPAA compliance.

Is Clerk still maintained?

Yes — Clerk is active. Its listing was last verified on August 26, 2026.

What are the best Clerk alternatives?

The first editor-selected Clerk alternatives are Logto, Casdoor.

How does Clerk score in our review?

The published editorial review lists Clerk at 90/100 overall across speed, privacy, and developer experience. Check the review's evidence status and test metadata for its verification level.

Clerk

About Clerk

Read our Clerk review (Score: 90)

Pricing & Platform Specs

Pricing Summary

Supported Platforms

Categories

Tags

Use Cases

Alternatives

Logto