# Better Auth vs Clerk for Next.js

Both are sign in batteries. A repo takes one of them, not both.

| | Better Auth | Clerk |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | Self-hosted, TypeScript-native authentication that lives in your own database. Email and password, magic links, and Google, GitHub and Microsoft sign-in (each on when its keys are set), with sign-up, password reset, account settings, a role column the admin panel can trust, and server-side session helpers with no vendor session service in the request path. | Hosted authentication: Clerk's sign-in, sign-up and account settings, restyled with your design's tokens in light and dark, with Google, GitHub and Microsoft switched on from the Clerk dashboard. With a database selected, a Svix-signed webhook mirrors users into your own tables. |
| Pricing | Free and open source (MIT). You pay only for your own Postgres and the sign-in emails you send. Google, GitHub and Microsoft sign-in are free. | Free Hobby plan up to 50,000 monthly retained users per app. Pro is $25/month, or $20/month billed yearly, then $0.02 per extra user. MFA needs Pro. Pro includes one enterprise SSO connection. |
| Best for | Teams who want the user table in their own database, joinable with their own data. No per-MAU bill and no third-party outage in the login path. | Teams who want finished auth UI and Clerk's hosted user dashboard on day one, with organisations there when they need them. The trade: the user record lives in Clerk's database. With a database selected, a webhook keeps a copy in yours. |

- [Build with Better Auth](https://agenticboilerplate.com/build?b=better-auth)
- [Build with Clerk](https://agenticboilerplate.com/build?b=clerk)

---

Agentic Boilerplate: A Next.js repo your agent already knows. Free during launch, then $99 once.

- Site map for agents: https://agenticboilerplate.com/llms.txt
- Public API: https://agenticboilerplate.com/openapi.json
- Contact: agenticstudio@gmail.com