Pick the auth service by who your users are — and who your CISO is
Five auth services in 2026, optimised for different shapes of project. Indie SaaS picks Clerk, enterprise picks Auth0, full-stack Supabase apps stay in-house, B2B SaaS adds WorkOS for SSO. The decision tree, the real economics.
READ THE FULL COMPARISONThe auth services, by user shape
Clerk
Premium DX, indie SaaS default
Pre-built React components, organization support, free 10K MAU then $0.02/MAU. Pricey at scale, fast at prototyping.
Read the take →Auth0
Procurement-friendly enterprise default
SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, mature SAML/SSO, HIPAA on Enterprise. Slower DX than Clerk, survives the 14-step procurement review.
Read the take →Supabase Auth
Free with Supabase, RLS-native
Real Postgres tables for users, RLS authorization, social providers, magic links, MFA. Free if you are on Supabase already.
Read the take →WorkOS
SSO + Directory Sync as a service
Best-of-breed for enterprise auth layer. Free for SSO + Directory Sync up to 1M MAU. Pairs with Clerk or Supabase Auth for password sign-in.
Read the take →Better Auth
Open-source BYO database
Successor to Lucia. Framework-agnostic, BYO Postgres/MySQL/SQLite, no per-MAU pricing. You ship the security updates.
Read the take →The decision in one sentence
Pick Clerk for indie SaaS shipping fast under 10K MAU. Pick Auth0 when enterprise procurement is the gatekeeper. Pick Supabase Auth when you are already on Supabase and want everything in one BAA. Pick WorkOS for B2B SaaS that specifically needs enterprise SSO without building it. Pick Better Auth when you want auth without per-MAU pricing and have engineering capacity to maintain it.
The supporting comparisons
- Authentication services 2026: Clerk, Auth0, Supabase Auth, WorkOS, Better Auth After shipping auth across all five major services, the actual decision is more nuanced than "pick Clerk if you can afford it".
- HIPAA-compliant AI in Next.js apps: Claude, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI When auth must integrate with regulated AI features and BAA scope.
- HIPAA-compliant Supabase + Vercel: the $700/month setup Auth in scope under the Supabase BAA for healthcare apps.
- Serverless databases 2026 The database choice intersects with the auth choice; pick them together.
The full directory of 20 auth services
This hub is the editorial top-5. The full directory at /authentication/ covers 20 auth services filterable by category (modern hosted SaaS / enterprise / bundled-with-platform / self-hosted / library), language, pricing, HIPAA eligibility, SSO/SAML readiness — including the ones the top-5 cuts: Stytch, Descope, Frontegg, Microsoft Entra ID, AWS Cognito, Lucia, Authentik, SuperTokens, Ory, FusionAuth.