home / rankings / auth providers / workos alternatives WorkOS alternatives 13 tools we tested head to head against WorkOS, ranked — and what each one actually does differently.
last reviewed 17 aug 2026 · from our best 14 auth and identity providers · list curated by Onur Ozcan x in
first — what you'd be leaving WorkOS ranks #2 of 14 in our auth providers testing. free authentication to a million users, billed at the enterprise connection.
88 /100 free auth at any startup scale with enterprise features sold as clean line items — which become the entire bill as you land enterprise customers.
why people look for an alternative
− $125 per sso connection is the highest here, and scim is billed again − thirty enterprise customers on both costs roughly $6,000/mo − audit logs bill per streaming connection plus per million events stay with WorkOS if authentication free to 1m monthly active users is the thing you care about most — nothing below beats it on that.
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Clerk #1 in auth providers · $25 a month at fifty thousand users, with one sso connection included
90 /100 verdict the cheapest credible option at mid-scale by a wide margin, priced per application rather than per account.
Clerk vs WorkOS
WorkOS Clerk price $125/connection/mo $25/mo (pro) free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $25/mo sso connection $125/mo each 1 included, then $75/mo self-host no no scim $125/mo per connection not published
switch for product teams who want the drop-in components and will not hit enterprise procurement for a while
pros
+ $25/mo at 50,000 users — the cheapest credible option at that scale + one enterprise sso connection included in the entry paid plan + generous hobby tier at the same 50,000 user ceiling + organisations included at 100 monthly active orgs before charges start + drop-in ui components that cut integration to hours cons
− priced per application, so multi-product companies pay repeatedly − logs retained 30 days even on the business tier − bills monthly retained users, a different unit from everyone else here 2
Keycloak #3 in auth providers · the only one with no commercial layer anywhere
85 /100 verdict every feature enterprises pay for elsewhere sits in the same apache 2.0 tree, with the entire operational burden as the price.
Keycloak vs WorkOS
WorkOS Keycloak price $125/connection/mo free — self-host only free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $0 — infrastructure only sso connection $125/mo each included — no per-connection fee self-host no yes — apache 2.0 scim $125/mo per connection preview, disabled by default
switch for teams with operations capacity who want no vendor in the identity path at all
pros
+ apache 2.0 with no commercial layer of any kind + saml, organizations and fine-grained admin permissions all in the oss build + no metering — cost is flat regardless of user count + organization support now enabled by default for b2b multi-tenancy + no vendor in the authentication path for your product cons
− scim is a preview feature, disabled by default − no first-party hosted tier — you run and patch all of it − operational burden is the real price and it is not small 3
Supabase Auth #4 in auth providers · auth bundled with the database you were already paying for
82 /100 verdict effectively free auth if you are already paying for the database, under a real mit licence — thin exactly where b2b requirements start.
Supabase Auth vs WorkOS
WorkOS Supabase Auth price $125/connection/mo $25/mo (pro plan) free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $25/mo (pro plan) sso connection $125/mo each 50 free, then $0.015/mau self-host no yes — mit scim $125/mo per connection not documented
switch for teams already on supabase who need solid consumer auth and little b2b machinery
pros
+ $25/mo covers auth plus the database, storage and functions + mit licence on the auth server, verified from the licence file + 50,000 mau free, 100,000 included on pro + saml 2.0 enterprise sso metered per user rather than per connection + mfa via totp or phone documented cons
− no documented scim provisioning − no end-user organisations or multi-tenancy model − auth audit logs not documented — treat as absent advertisement
4
Better Auth #5 in auth providers · a plain mit framework with no metering at any scale
80 /100 verdict the only entry here where the code carries no commercial layer at all — and the only one you must operate entirely yourself.
Better Auth vs WorkOS
WorkOS Better Auth price $125/connection/mo free — the framework is not metered free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m n/a — not metered sso connection $125/mo each 1 on $20 tier, then $50/mo self-host no yes — mit scim $125/mo per connection via paid hosted service
switch for typescript teams who want auth in their own codebase with no per-user bill ever
pros
+ mit licence with no commercial restriction on the code + no per-user metering at any scale + auth lives in your codebase, on your database + optional hosted tier is priced per event, so $20 holds at any user count + the common destination for teams migrating off per-mau pricing cons
− audit logs, sso management and directory sync require the paid hosted service − a library you operate — no vendor support path − organisations and multi-tenancy in the framework unconfirmed 5
Logto #6 in auth providers · fifty thousand users free, then metered on tokens rather than people
78 /100 verdict the most generous published free tier here on a fully mpl-2.0 codebase, with a metering unit that quietly changes above it.
Logto vs WorkOS
WorkOS Logto price $125/connection/mo $24/mo (pro) free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $0 — at the free ceiling sso connection $125/mo each $48 per connector self-host no yes — mpl-2.0 scim $125/mo per connection not published
switch for small teams who want an open licence and a free tier that actually reaches production
pros
+ 50,000 mau free — the most generous published free tier here + mpl-2.0 across the codebase with no open-core split found + $24 base is the cheapest paid entry of the open-source options + only access tokens count toward the quota, not id or refresh tokens + enterprise sso connectors at $48, well below workos cons
− paid tier meters tokens rather than users, changing how you forecast − organizations, sso and m2m are separate add-ons stacked on the base − scim and audit logs not listed on the pricing page 6
Descope #7 in auth providers · tenants, scim and audit logs in the free tier
75 /100 verdict the most complete b2b feature set at the bottom of the range, sold with an overage rate you cannot find.
Descope vs WorkOS
WorkOS Descope price $125/connection/mo $249/mo (pro) free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m ≥$799 + unpublished rate sso connection $125/mo each 3 free, 5 pro, 10 growth self-host no no scim $125/mo per connection included on all tiers
switch for b2b products that need multi-tenancy and provisioning on day one
pros
+ scim provisioning included on every tier, including free + tenants and multi-tenancy on all plans from free upward + audit logs on every tier with retention as the only difference + three enterprise sso connections on the free plan + flows-based configuration rather than code-first integration cons
− no per-mau overage rate published — cost above 25,000 users is unknowable − closed source with no self-hosting option − $249 entry price is high relative to what it includes 7
Kinde #8 in auth providers · unlimited enterprise sso for less than one connection costs elsewhere
73 /100 verdict the cheapest enterprise sso in this ranking by a wide margin, held back by provisioning that has not shipped.
Kinde vs WorkOS
WorkOS Kinde price $125/connection/mo $25/mo (pro) free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $716.25/mo (pro) sso connection $125/mo each unlimited at $75/mo (plus) self-host no no scim $125/mo per connection coming soon — not shipped
switch for b2b teams landing many enterprise customers who each want their own idp
pros
+ unlimited enterprise sso connections at $75/mo on plus + users on paid subscriptions are excluded from the mau count + fifty organisations included on every paid plan + 10,500 mau included even on the $25 entry tier + per-user rates decline across plans for high-volume products cons
− scim is 'coming soon' on every plan, blocking enterprise procurement − $716/mo at 50,000 users is mid-table and well above clerk − audit log retention is one day on the free plan 8
Firebase Authentication #9 in auth providers · free to fifty thousand users, on two price lists at once
70 /100 verdict the cheapest route to fifty thousand consumer users, wearing two price lists whose enterprise half we could not read.
Firebase Authentication vs WorkOS
WorkOS Firebase Authentication price $125/connection/mo $0 up to 50,000 mau free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $0 — standard tier sso connection $125/mo each unverified — priced per mau self-host no no scim $125/mo per connection not documented
switch for consumer mobile and web apps already inside the firebase ecosystem
pros
+ 50,000 mau free on both spark and blaze + deep integration with the rest of firebase and google cloud + handles consumer identifiers — email, social, phone — out of the box + no separate vendor if you are already on firebase + the free tier is genuinely usable in production for consumer apps cons
− one service on two price lists with different rates above the free tier − identity platform pricing tables would not render — enterprise rates unverified − enterprise saml and oidc users bill outside the free allowance 9
SuperTokens #10 in auth providers · unlimited self-hosted users, with the b2b features licensed separately
68 /100 verdict an unlimited-user open-source core with the open-core line running straight through the features b2b products need.
SuperTokens vs WorkOS
WorkOS SuperTokens price $125/connection/mo $0.02 per mau above 5,000, $100/mo minimum free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $900 cloud / $0 self-host sso connection $125/mo each on request — enterprise licence self-host no yes — apache 2.0 except ee/ scim $125/mo per connection not published
switch for teams who want unmetered self-hosted auth and do not need multi-tenancy
pros
+ self-hosted core has no mau limit — 50,000 users costs nothing + apache 2.0 over everything outside the ee/ directory + enterprise licence explicitly permits unlicensed dev and test use + volume discounts published above 10,000 mau or five organisations + first three dashboard users included cons
− multi-tenancy, m2m and attack protection are priced on request only − mfa and account linking bill per mau even when self-hosted − $100/mo minimum applies per add-on, stacking fast 10
AWS Cognito #11 in auth providers · the free tier was cut by 80% and most coverage hasn't noticed
65 /100 verdict still cheap if you pick the right tier on purpose, after a free-tier cut that makes most published comparisons wrong.
AWS Cognito vs WorkOS
WorkOS AWS Cognito price $125/connection/mo $0 up to 10,000 mau on lite or essentials free tier yes yes cost at 50k mau $0 — free to 1m $220 lite / $600 essentials sso connection $125/mo each $0.015/mau above 50 free self-host no no scim $125/mo per connection not documented
switch for teams already deep in aws who will stay on the lite tier deliberately
pros
+ $220/mo at 50,000 users if you deliberately select the lite tier + enterprise saml billed per user, not per connection — cheap at scale + multi-tenancy documented with tenant isolation options + inherits cloudtrail, cloudwatch and the aws iam apparatus + pre-november-2024 pools keep the 50,000 mau free allowance cons
− free tier cut from 50,000 to 10,000 mau for new pools − the default tier for new pools is essentials at nearly 3x lite − scim is not mentioned on the features page + 3 more tested, not detailed here
we ranked 14 auth providers in total. the 3 that didn't make this page are written up in the full ranking →
how these were compared every tool on this page went through the same test as WorkOS — same tasks, same order, scored the same way. the comparison tables are the figures from that testing, not vendor spec sheets.
the auth providers test in full → was this useful?
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Clerk alternatives Keycloak alternatives Supabase Auth alternatives Better Auth alternatives Logto alternatives Descope alternatives