Alt Auth vs Clerk: Which Login Should You Ship?
By The Alt Auth Team
Clerk and Alt Auth both take login off your plate, but they come at it from opposite directions. Clerk gives developers polished, pre-built components — drop a sign-in component into a React or Next.js app and you have a working flow. Alt Auth gives you a hosted login page that carries your brand, which any app can send users to, whatever it is built with. Here is how they compare, with prices as published at the time of writing (October 2026).
The short version
- Pick Clerk if your app is React or Next.js, you want sign-in components inside your own pages, and you need passkeys or enterprise SSO today.
- Pick Alt Auth if you want one branded login for any stack, EU data hosting, and a bill based on people who actually sign in.
- On raw free-tier size, Clerk is ahead — we would rather say that plainly than have you find out later.
Pricing at the time of writing
Clerk counts “monthly retained users” — a user who comes back to your app at least one day after signing up. Its free Hobby plan includes 50,000 of them per app; Pro is $25 a month (or $20 billed yearly) with 50,000 included per app and $0.02 per extra user in the next band, with volume discounts above that; Business is $300 a month ($250 yearly). Enterprise is custom and annual only.
Alt Auth counts anyone who signs up or signs in during the month, once. Hobby is free up to 1,000 active users; Starter is $29 with 10,000 included ($0.015 per extra); Growth is $99 with 30,000 ($0.010 per extra); Business is $299 with 100,000 ($0.008 per extra). Monthly billing, cancel any time.
So, honestly: for an app with tens of thousands of returning users, Clerk’s list prices are lower. The two meters are not identical — a sign-up who never returns costs nothing on Clerk and counts once on Alt Auth — so model your own numbers with each provider’s calculator before choosing on price.
Components vs a hosted page
This is the real difference. Clerk’s components live inside your app and are styled through its appearance options; you can also build fully custom flows on its lower-level APIs if you want complete control and are happy to write that UI. Alt Auth’s login lives on its own page, on our address or (from Growth) yours, so nothing has to be installed in your frontend. Users arrive, sign in, and are sent back with a one-time code your backend exchanges for their details and a signed session token. The same flow works for a React app, a plain website, a Python backend or a mobile app.
“Clerk fits beautifully when your product is a React app. Alt Auth fits when your product is everything else too.”— The Alt Auth Team
Features, side by side
- Custom domain: Clerk includes it on every plan, the free one too. Alt Auth from Growth.
- Removing the provider’s branding: Clerk from Pro. Alt Auth from Starter; Enterprise removes our name completely.
- Two-step verification: Clerk from Pro. Alt Auth from Starter.
- Passkeys: Clerk from Pro. Alt Auth does not offer passkeys.
- Enterprise SSO: Clerk includes one connection on Pro (extra connections are paid). Alt Auth: coming soon.
- Sign-in links by email: Alt Auth from Growth, single use and valid for 15 minutes.
- Google sign-in on every Alt Auth plan; Facebook from Growth; Apple and Microsoft coming soon.
- Data location: Alt Auth stores data in the EU, run by WeNoCode OÜ in Estonia.
Where Clerk is clearly stronger
Developer experience inside React and Next.js, a bigger free allowance, passkeys, and enterprise SSO that ships today. If your team lives in that ecosystem and wants sign-in as components rather than a separate page, Clerk is an excellent choice and we would not talk you out of it.
The verdict
Choose by shape, not hype. Clerk is the better fit for React-first teams who want components and the newest sign-in methods. Alt Auth is the better fit for teams who want a single branded login across any stack, simple redirect integration, and their users’ data kept in the EU.
See the full Clerk alternatives list →