Magic
Passwordless link auth, web3 wallet integration, the original "no passwords" hosted product.
VISIT MAGICKey takeaway: Web3-adjacent products that need wallet and email-link authentication in one place are the case for Magic. Outside that niche the general-purpose field has caught up and overtaken it, so a mainstream B2C or B2B app is better served by Clerk or Stytch. Treat it as a specialist tool, not a default.
Quick facts
- CategoryModern hosted SaaS
- LanguageTypeScript
- PricingFreemium
- LicenseProprietary
- Created2018
- GitHub starsclosed
- HIPAA-eligibleNo
- SSO / SAMLLimited / paid
What it is
Magic was an early passwordless-first hosted auth product. Strong web3 / wallet integration story. Good fit for crypto-adjacent products and apps committed to email-link auth as the primary flow.
Best for
- Web3 products needing wallet + email auth
- Apps committed to magic-link as the primary flow
When not to pick it
Skip Magic for general B2C / B2B auth, Clerk or Stytch fit better. Magic's positioning leans hard into the web3 niche.
My take
Niche pick for web3-adjacent products. Outside that niche the field has caught up.
Wallets and email links in one product
Magic's durable value is the bridge between a normal consumer sign-in and a crypto wallet. A user signs in with an email link and ends up with a wallet they never had to install or write a seed phrase for, which removes the single biggest drop-off point in onboarding a mainstream audience to an on-chain product. For teams building in that space that is meaningful infrastructure, and not something the general-purpose auth vendors bother to replicate. The flip side is that it shapes the whole product. Roadmap attention, documentation and case studies all point at the web3 use case, so if you arrive wanting plain email-link auth for a SaaS app you are adopting a vendor whose priorities sit somewhere other than your own, and you will feel it the first time you need something ordinary.
Why the general field caught up
Magic was early to passwordless when magic links were still an unusual choice, and that head start has largely evaporated. Clerk, Stytch, Supabase Auth and Better Auth all ship email-link authentication as one method among many, alongside passkeys, social providers, MFA and organisation primitives that Magic does not lead on. It also has no enterprise SSO or SAML story, so a B2B roadmap runs into a wall quickly. The directory entry is blunt about this and it is the right read: for general B2C or B2B authentication, pick something else. Keep Magic on the list when the wallet story is load-bearing, when your users are crypto-curious rather than crypto-native, and when the alternative is asking someone to install a browser extension before they can try your product at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is Magic best used for?
Products that need consumer-friendly onboarding into a crypto wallet. A user authenticates with an email link and receives a wallet without installing an extension or handling a seed phrase. That specific bridge is what Magic does better than the general-purpose auth vendors, and it is the only reason to shortlist it.
Should I use Magic for a normal SaaS app?
Usually not. For standard B2C or B2B authentication, Clerk gives you better components, Stytch gives you deeper passwordless primitives, and Supabase Auth or Better Auth give you the user table in your own database. Magic's positioning leans hard into web3, and outside that context you are adopting a niche vendor for a commodity need.
Does Magic support passwordless login without crypto?
Yes, email-link authentication works as a standalone sign-in method with no wallet involved. But that capability is now standard across the category, so choosing Magic purely for magic links means accepting a narrower ecosystem, and no enterprise SSO, in exchange for nothing you could not get elsewhere.
Links
Similar tools you should also consider
If Magic is your pick, the next conversation is short
The 30-min call is where your auth choice becomes a real architecture, a migration plan if you are switching, and a price range you can take to your stakeholders. Describe your stack, your scale, your compliance constraints. I tell you whether Magic is genuinely your fit.