Clerk vs. Auth0 vs. WorkOS: which should you choose?
Compare Clerk vs. AuthO vs. WorkOS to know which one you should use to manage identities in your app.
If you want to add authentication to your app, you may wonder how the top options stack up. Clerk, Auth0, and WorkOS are all leading players in this space, each with unique strengths and use cases.
In this article, we'll compare Clerk vs. Auth0 vs. WorkOS and break down their features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you decide which platform suits your app’s needs.
Clerk vs. Auth0 vs. WorkOS
Clerk
Clerk is relatively new to the authentication space, but it's already making waves with its developer-centric approach. It provides multiple authentication options with pre-built components that simplify integrating them into your app.
Features
- User management: You can manage users in the front end using the pre-built components or in the back end using the backend SDK.
- Multi-factor authentication: Clerk supports MFA via SMS passcodes, hardware keys, authenticator apps, and recovery codes when other forms of authentication are not available.
- User authentication: Clerk supports email/password authentication, social sign-ons, one-time passcodes, and magic links.
- Enterprise SSO: Clerk allows you to implement SAML and OIDC authentication flows.
- Webhook events: Clerk offers 20+ webhook events that allow you to receive notifications from Clerk during the authentication flow, such as when a user is created or updated.
- Easily customizable components: Clerk components give you building blocks for creating a UI that matches the look and feel of your app. For example, you can add <SignIn/> and <SignUp/> components to your app and use a CSS library like Tailwind to customize it, then deploy it on your domain.
- Multi-tenant support: Provides features like auto-join that lets users join organizations based on their email domains, invitations, and custom roles and permissions.
Who it's good for
Clerk is an excellent choice for teams that want a pre-built authentication solution that is customizable without costing a fortune.
Most of the SDKs and pre-built components are JavaScript—based, so you should consider that if your app is not JS-based.
Pricing
Clerk is free for your first 10,000 monthly active users and 100 monthly active logs. Then you can scale to $0.02 per MAU after 10,000 users.
Auth0
Auth0 by Okta has been around for a while and offers authentication, authorization, and user management features.
Features
- Universal login: Auth0 provides a customizable and secure login interface that you can redirect users to and let Auth0 handle the authentication process for you. It supports email/password authentication and social login options, including Facebook and Google.
- Multi-factor authentication: It supports various MFA methods, including SMS, email, push notifications, and hardware tokens.
- Single Sign-On (SSO): Auth0 SSO supports popular SSO protocols such as OIDC and SAML.
- User management: It provides a dashboard for admins to manage users, roles, and permissions. It also gives you API access for programmatic control over user management functions.
- Actions: Actions allow you to write custom logic that executes during different stages of the authentication pipeline.
Pricing
For B2B apps:
- Free plan: Free for 7,500 MAUs with unlimited logins for password auth, passkeys, social logins, branded forms, and 3 actions.
- Essentials plan: Starts at $150 per month for up to 500 Monthly Active Users (MAUs) capped at $1,725 per month for up to 7,500 MAUs. Scaling beyond 7,500 MAUs requires scheduling a consultation with Okta’s sales team.
- Professional plan: Starts at $800 per month for 500 MAU.
- Enterprise plan: Pricing is available through the sales team.
For B2C apps:
- Free plan: Free for 7,500 MAUs with unlimited logins for password auth, passkeys, social logins, branded forms, and 3 actions.
- Essentials plan: Starts at $35 monthly for up to 500 MAUs.
- Professional plan: Starts at $240 per month for 1000 MAUs.
- Enterprise plan: Pricing is available through the sales team.
Who it's good for
Auth0 is good for developers looking for an out-of-the-box authentication solution with basic customization options. It might not be the best fit if you need a custom login experience for your app.
WorkOS
WorkOS is designed to make applications enterprise-ready with minimal fuss. It targets developers who must quickly ensure their apps' compatibility with enterprise features.
Features
- Single Sign-On (SSO): This service supports major identity providers using protocols like SAML and OAuth, covering providers such as Okta, Microsoft Entra, and OneLogin with a single API integration.
- Directory sync: Allows applications to synchronize with enterprise directories such as Active Directory, Google Workspace, and other SCIM-enabled directories.
- User management: WorkOS supports various authentication methods like email/password, social logins, MFA, and magic links. It also allows you to support user provisioning via SCIM or Just-In-Time (JIT) provisioning. User management also includes advanced security features like automatic spam and bot detection, password strength validation, and leaked password protection.
- AuthKit: This is a hosted UI that handles the authentication flows for you, so you don’t spend much time building your authentication frontend. You can customize it to match your app’s branding, messaging, or domain. If you’d rather not use AuthKit, you can build your UI for complete control.
- Audit logs: WorkOS records every user action within your app. These logs include what the user did, what their action triggered, and when and where they did it.
- Admin portal: A fully customizable admin portal your enterprise customers can use to onboard themselves. It eliminates back-and-forth support requests by allowing your customers to set up SSO or Directory Sync.
- Event API: This API provides real-time notifications and updates about events within your app, allowing you to keep your databases in sync.
Pricing
WorkOS operates on a per-company pricing model:
- User management: It's free for up to 1 million MAUs, and $2500 per month for every additional million MAUs.
- Custom domains: Offered separately for a flat rate of $99 per month.
- Single Sign-On: $125 per connection per month.
- Directory Sync: $125 per connection per month.
- Audit logs: Starts at $5 per organization per month.
Who it's good for
WorkOS best suits service providers looking to rapidly upgrade their applications for enterprise adoption by supporting enterprise-grade authentication features.
Which should you choose?
Choosing the right provider boils down to what your app needs.
Go with Clerk if you want a ready-to-go solution that you can tweak and host yourself to match your app’s brand.
Choose Auth0 if you prefer a fully managed solution with less emphasis on customization.
If you’re eyeing those enterprise-level features, WorkOS is the way to go. It’s built to quickly help you add enterprise-grade identity management features like SSO and SCIM so that you can secure your first enterprise client. Plus, WorkOS provides an admin portal that speeds up the whole onboarding process.
Next steps
Ready to add enterprise-grade authentication to your app? Use WorkOS.
- Get started fast: With SDKs in every popular language, easy-to-follow documentation, and Slack-based support, you can implement SSO in minutes rather than weeks.
- Support every protocol: With OAuth 2.0 integrations to popular providers like Google and Microsoft, compatibility with every major IdP, and full support for custom SAML/OIDC connections, WorkOS can support any enterprise customer.
- Avoid the back-and-forth: WorkOS’s Admin Portal takes the pain out of onboarding your customers’ IT teams and configuring your app to work with their identity provider.
- Pricing that makes sense: Unlike competitors who price by monthly active users, WorkOS charges a flat rate for each company you onboard — whether they bring 10 or 10,000 SSO users to your app.
Sign up for WorkOS today, and start selling to enterprise customers tomorrow.