Better Auth
Open-source authentication and authorization framework for TypeScript applications.
HN commenters like Better Auth as an open-source replacement for services like Clerk, Auth0 and Supabase auth,123 citing its broad feature set, easy extensibility and strong TypeScript developer experience.456 The most common caveat is maturity:78 commenters report rushed code with few tests and little logging, plus breaking changes in patch versions.910
Why people recommend it
Open-source alternative · 3
Commenters switched to it from Clerk and Supabase and see it as on par with or better than commercial auth services.
“I've recently switched from Clerk to BetterAuth as well and it's really good and definitely would recommend to anyone.”
“better-auth is amazing and made moving off supabase a lot less scary”
Show 1 more
“Better auth is great! I love how it's way more hackable than using a something like Clerk.”
Feature breadth · 2
It covers authn/z, OIDC/SSO provider, RBAC, SAML/SCIM and more, going beyond next-auth/auth.js.
“I've recently switched from Clerk to BetterAuth as well and it's really good and definitely would recommend to anyone.”
Hackable plugins · 2
Its plugin system let one team add iframe postMessage auth, and others build their own auth layers on top of it.
“Better auth is great! I love how it's way more hackable than using a something like Clerk.”
“Auth is nk-auth, built on top of betterauth”
Developer experience · 3
Commenters praise its developer experience in the TypeScript ecosystem and use it across all their projects.
“the developer experience is really great”
“Better Auth is great, I use it for all my projects.”
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“Better Auth is an excellent authentication library—we use it extensively for auth in LaunchSaaS.”
Lower cost · 1
One commenter who switched from Clerk found it much cheaper and more reliable.
“I've recently switched from Clerk to BetterAuth as well and it's really good and definitely would recommend to anyone.”
Caveats and dissent
Code quality · 1
One user found the early code rushed, with few automated tests and almost no logging.
“I actually use Better Auth, and I'm a huge fan despite those criticisms.”
Breaking changes · 1
Breaking changes in patch versions were reported as more common than in most packages.
“I used Better Auth for my mobile app backend. It works okayish.”
Non-JS clients · 1
The OpenAPI spec gets little care because the project mainly caters to JS frontends, which makes it only okay for a mobile backend.
“I used Better Auth for my mobile app backend. It works okayish.”
Gated features · 2
Some features are enterprise-only, and audit logs require the managed service.
“I actually use Better Auth, and I'm a huge fan despite those criticisms.”
Project maturity · 2
Users said it felt lacking and appeared to be run by one person, and one user is looking for backup plans over its direction.
“When I used it last year, I still found it lacking and it seemed to be run by one guy.”
“I just implemented Better Auth for our new product - time to start looking for backup plans.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- From Supabase to Clerk to Better Auth 5 mentions
- Better Auth is joining Vercel 4 mentions
- Show HN: Typebase – A single-folder back end you write in TypeScript 1 mention
- Show HN: Replacebase – library to migrate away from Supabase 1 mention
- I Built Payment Integration Instead of Using Better Auth's Payment Plugin 1 mention
- Kratos - Cloud native Auth0 open-source alternative (self-hosted) 1 mention
Also written as better-auth. Data: better-auth.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 13
“Auth is nk-auth, built on top of betterauth”
“Better Auth is great, I use it for all my projects.”
“It's actually really powerful!”
“I used Better Auth for my mobile app backend. It works okayish.”
“I just implemented Better Auth for our new product - time to start looking for backup plans.”
“I actually use Better Auth, and I'm a huge fan despite those criticisms.”
“I've recently switched from Clerk to BetterAuth as well and it's really good and definitely would recommend to anyone.”
“But inclined to BetterAuth for new projects.”
“Better auth is great! I love how it's way more hackable than using a something like Clerk.”
“When I used it last year, I still found it lacking and it seemed to be run by one guy.”
“better-auth is amazing and made moving off supabase a lot less scary”
“Better Auth is an excellent authentication library—we use it extensively for auth in LaunchSaaS.”
“the developer experience is really great”