Best Self-Hosted Clerk Alternatives in 2026
Clerk is a developer-first authentication platform with pre-built UI components for sign-up, login, and user management. Free tier available; paid plans start at $20/mo.
11 Self-Hosted Alternatives to Clerk
Better Auth
27KTypeScript-first authentication framework with 50+ plugins covering passkeys, multi-tenancy, SSO, and MFA — configured in a single auth.ts file.
Authentik
21KAuthentik is a self-hosted authentication & SSO tool with support for Authentication, Identity Management, security.
ORY
17KOry is a certified and battle-tested identity solution backed by a large open source community and trusted by Fortune 500 companies
Supertokens
15KOpen Source User Authentication. Build fast, maintain control, with reasonable pricing
Ory
14KOry handles certified and battle-tested identity solution backed by a large community and trusted by Fortune as a self-hosted solution.
Zitadel
13KZitadel handles provides a comprehensive identity management solution as a self-hosted solution.
Logto
12KLogto lets you run identity solution offering customizable login experiences entirely on your own server.
Hanko
8.9KHanko lets you run streamline user authentication entirely on your own server.
Stack Auth
6.7KStack Auth gives you provides secure authentication, authorization, and user management for developers in just 5 minutes on your own infrastructure.
Authgear
1.5KAuthgear gives you managed authentication platform on your own infrastructure.
Tesseral
1.1KReleased under MIT, Tesseral provides complete B2B authentication solution on self-hosted infrastructure.
Why Look for Clerk Alternatives?
Clerk is a developer-first authentication platform with pre-built UI components for sign-up, login, and user management. Free tier available; paid plans start at $20/mo.
Pricing
Here’s what Clerk charges for its plans:
Hobby --- $20/month
- Unlimited applications
- 50,000 MRU limit per app
- 3 dashboard seats
- Up to 5 user impersonations
- APIs and prebuilt UIs for sign-up, sign-in, and user profile+ most authentication features
- Custom domain
B2B Authentication --- $100/month
- 100 MRO included per app
- Up to 20 members per
- Includes Admin & Member roles
- Custom permissions
- Invitations
- 100 MRO included per app$1/mo each
Administration --- $100/month
- 5 impersonations per month
- Unlimited impersonations
Billing --- $0.30/month
- Stripe 2.9% + Stripe transaction charge $0.30 + Clerk Billing 0.7%
- All features included for subscription billing (usage and per seat billing coming soon)
- No payment integration code, UI work, or webhook management required.
- Unified user and subscription data.
- Billing-aware authorization for plan-based access control and feature gating.
- Prebuilt components for pricing pages and customer self-service subscription management.
Self-hosted alternatives eliminate these recurring costs entirely. You pay only for your own infrastructure.
11 Best Open-Source Alternatives to Clerk
Hanko
Secure, scalable, and customizable authentication solution for developers. — 8,868 GitHub stars. Licensed under Open Source.
Better Auth
A comprehensive authentication framework offering email/password, social sign-on, two-factor auth, and multi-tenant support with full TypeScript integration. — 27,214 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.
Authentik
Open-source Identity Provider with flexibility. — 20,524 GitHub stars. Licensed under Custom.
Supertokens
Build fast. Maintain control. Save budget. — 14,966 GitHub stars. Licensed under Open Source.
Zitadel
Streamline app development with our identity suite. — 13,266 GitHub stars. Licensed under AGPL-3.0.
ORY
Ory: Modular IAM with unmatched UX. — 16,997 GitHub stars. Licensed under Apache-2.0.
Logto
Identity infrastructure for developers — 11,704 GitHub stars. Licensed under MPL-2.0.
Stack Auth
Stack Auth provides secure authentication, authorization, and user management for developers in just 5 minutes. — 6,737 GitHub stars. Licensed under Open Source.
Authgear
Turnkey solution for consumer authentication needs — 1,518 GitHub stars. Licensed under Apache-2.0.
Tesseral
Complete B2B authentication solution with SSO, role management, API security, and pre-built UI components. Ship enterprise-grade auth in just a few lines of code. — 1,116 GitHub stars. Licensed under MIT.
Ory
Ory is a certified and battle-tested identity solution backed by a large open source community and trusted by Fortune 500 companies. — 13,533 GitHub stars. Licensed under Apache-2.0.
Why Self-Host Instead of Clerk?
- Data ownership. Your data stays on your server, not on Clerk’s infrastructure.
- Predictable costs. Pay a fixed VPS cost instead of growing per-user or per-usage fees.
- No vendor lock-in. Export and migrate your data anytime. You control the database.
- GDPR and compliance. Hosting your own tools simplifies data residency and compliance requirements.
How much can you save?
Clerk (Pro)
$20/mo
Billed monthly
$240/year
Better Auth (self-hosted)
$10/mo
VPS hosting only. $0 per-user fees.
$320 year 1 (incl. $200 setup)
Your annual savings
$0
At this scale the setup cost offsets savings in year 1. Year 2+: $120/year.
Better Auth runs on a $10/mo VPS with unlimited users. Setup by upready.dev starts at $200 (one-time). Clerk pricing as of March 2026.
Why teams switch from Clerk
- → Data ownership. Your data stays on your server -- not on Clerk's infrastructure.
- → Predictable costs. Pay a fixed VPS cost instead of growing per-user or per-usage fees.
- → No vendor lock-in. Export and migrate your data anytime. You control the database.
- → GDPR and compliance. Hosting your own tools simplifies data residency and compliance requirements.
Head-to-Head Comparisons
Both are security tools. Authelia has 4 unique features, Ory has 2.
Both are security tools. Authelia has 3 unique features, Authentik has 1.
Both are security tools. Authelia has 4 unique features, ORY has 2.
Both are security tools. Authentik has 2 unique features, Casdoor has 2.
Keycloak for enterprise environments that need Java ecosystem compatibility and battle-tested production reliability. Authentik for modern self-hosters who want an easier setup with a beautiful UI and proxy-based authentication.
Both are security tools. Authentik has 4 unique features, Vaultwarden has 4.
Both are security tools. Casdoor has 2 unique features, ORY has 2.
Both are security tools. Hanko has 3 unique features, Vaultwarden has 3.
Both are security tools. Infisical Community Edition has 7 unique features, Ory has 1.
Both are security tools. Infisical Community Edition has 7 unique features, ORY has 1.
Both are security tools. Logto has 7 unique features, Vaultwarden has 2.
Both are security tools. Logto has 3 unique features, Supertokens has 0.
Both are security tools. Ory has 0 unique features, Teleport has 2.
Both are security tools. ORY has 0 unique features, Teleport has 2.
Both are security tools. ORY has 4 unique features, Vaultwarden has 4.
Both are security tools. Supertokens has 5 unique features, Vaultwarden has 3.
Both are security tools. Vaultwarden has 2 unique features, Zitadel has 12.
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