Compare
Clerk vs Better Auth
Same catalog, two overlapping tools. Catch and verdict side by side. No winner score.
Clerk
Auth that actually ships with your UI
Freemium · freemium
The Catch
Loud Catch: Clerk is a paid auth product with a free tier that evaporates as MAUs grow. You are outsourcing login UI and session logic; customization is the Clerk way or a fight. This is not the OSS auth library.
Verdict
Auth-as-a-feature ships faster than auth-as-a-library.
Better Auth
TypeScript auth that lives in your app, not a rented IdP
Freemium · freemium
The Catch
The library is free; dashboards, audit, and SSO add-ons are the paid wedge. Starter audit retention is 1 day. This is not a hosted IdP — you still own the database and the incident.
Verdict
The MIT auth library to reach for before Clerk. Framework is free; the dashboard is the upsell.