Magic Links vs Passwords: An Honest Comparison

Magic links get recommended as an unambiguous upgrade: no passwords to forget, nothing to breach, fewer support tickets. Two of those are true. The third depends entirely on your email deliverability, and that is where the argument usually goes wrong.

Where they win

• No password database to leak, and no credential stuffing against reused passwords.
• Sign-up and sign-in collapse into one flow, which measurably helps first-time conversion.
• No reset flow to build, because the login flow already is one.

Where they hurt

• Corporate mail filters. If the link takes four minutes to arrive, you have invented a worse password.
• Shared or monitored inboxes turn email access into account access.
• Users on a desktop app or a second device end up bouncing between phone and laptop to finish a login.

The pragmatic answer for most products is both: passwords with proper hashing for people who want them, magic links for people who do not, and the choice made per project rather than per industry blog post. Magic links are available from the Pro plan in Alt Auth alongside email, Google, Apple and Facebook sign-in.

Compare authentication methods →