Clerk
Clerk is a hosted authentication and user management service made by Clerk, Inc., a San Francisco company founded in 2019. It gives developers prebuilt UI components and APIs for sign-up, sign-in, user profiles and B2B organizations, with SDKs for Next.js, React, Expo and many other frameworks. Since 5 February 2026 it bills by monthly retained users: the free Hobby plan covers 50,000 per app and Pro costs $25 a month, or $20 a month billed yearly.
Facts checked on against the sources listed at the end of this page.
- Pricing
- FreemiumPaid from $25 a month, or $20 a month billed yearly (Pro)
- Open source
- NoProprietary service; client SDKs published on GitHub
- GitHub stars
- 1,763
- npm downloads a week
- 3.1Mup 14% on the week before
- Latest release
- @clerk/nextjs@…2 days ago
- Releases in 90 days
- 10about 3 a month
A good fit for
- Next.js and React apps that want working sign-in and profile screens in an afternoon
- B2B SaaS that needs organizations, roles and invitations without building them
- Consumer apps with many one-time visitors, since users who never return aren't billed
- Small projects that fit inside 50,000 retained users on the free plan
Not a good fit for
- Teams that must self-host user data: Clerk is a hosted service only
- Free-plan apps that need MFA, passkeys or enterprise SSO, which all require Pro
- Fully custom login UI on non-React stacks, where the prebuilt components don't apply
- Large B2B organizations on a tight budget: unlimited members per organization needs a $100 a month add-on
Clerk pricing
Hobby is free for up to 50,000 monthly retained users per app. Pro is $25 a month ($20 billed yearly) with 50,000 included, then from $0.02 per extra user a month, falling to $0.012 above 10 million. Business is $300 a month ($250 billed yearly) and Enterprise is custom.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby | $0 | 50,000 monthly retained users per app, up to 3 dashboard seats, basic organizations. No MFA, passkeys or enterprise SSO. |
| Pro | $25 a month, or $20 a month billed yearly | 50,000 users per app, then $0.02 each (50,001 to 100,000). MFA, passkeys, branding removal, 1 enterprise connection per app. |
| Business | $300 a month, or $250 a month billed yearly | Pro features plus 10 dashboard seats ($20 a month per extra seat) and 30 days of application logs. |
| Enterprise | Custom, billed yearly | 99.99% uptime SLA. |
| B2B authentication add-on | $100 a month, or $85 a month billed yearly | 100 monthly retained organizations per app, then $1 each; unlimited members per organization. |
| Administration add-on | $100 a month, or $85 a month billed yearly | Unlimited user impersonation. |
Prices in USD, checked on 27 September 2026. Current prices on clerk.com.
Main features
- Prebuilt components
- Drop-in SignIn, SignUp, UserButton and user profile components for React-based frameworks.
- Sign-in methods
- Email and password, social login, magic links and SMS or email one-time codes on every plan. MFA and passkeys need Pro or higher.
- Organizations
- B2B organizations with roles. Hobby includes 100 monthly retained organizations with up to 20 members each; the enhanced B2B add-on removes the member cap.
- Enterprise SSO
- SAML and OIDC enterprise connections from Pro, with 1 connection included per app and more from $75 a month each.
- Session control
- Session length is fixed at 7 days on Hobby and configurable from 5 minutes to 10 years on Pro.
- Billing
- Subscription billing built into Clerk, priced at 0.7% of billing volume.
- Webhooks and Backend API
- Sync user events to your own database and manage users from your server. Full user-data export is available on the free plan.
About Clerk
Clerk handles the parts of an app that deal with users: sign-up, sign-in, sessions, profile management and organizations for B2B apps. Instead of building forms and flows yourself, you drop in components such as SignIn, SignUp and UserButton, and Clerk hosts the user data and session logic.
Clerk counts usage in monthly retained users (MRUs). A user counts as retained when they come back to the app at least one day after signing up, so people who sign up once and never return aren't billed. Clerk moved to this model on 5 February 2026 and raised the free allowance from 10,000 users to 50,000 per app.
The Next.js SDK is the most common entry point, but Clerk also publishes SDKs for React, Expo, Astro, Nuxt, Vue, Express, Go, Ruby on Rails, iOS, Android and other platforms. It also offers a billing add-on for subscriptions, charged at 0.7% of billing volume.
- Made by
- Clerk, Inc.
- Launched
- 2019
- Based in
- San Francisco, California
- Free plan
- Yes: Hobby plan with 50,000 monthly retained users per app and up to 3 dashboard seats
- Available on
- Next.js, React, Expo, React Router, TanStack React Start, Astro, Nuxt, Vue, Express, Go, Ruby on Rails, iOS, Android
Usage and activity
Weekly npm downloads of @clerk/nextjs, last 12 months.
Recent releases
- @clerk/[email protected]2 days ago
- @clerk/[email protected]2 days ago
- @clerk/[email protected]2 days ago
- @clerk/[email protected]2 days ago
- @clerk/[email protected]2 days ago
- @clerk/[email protected]1 week ago
Clerk alternatives
Clerk compared
ClerkvsAuth0
Clerk is a hosted authentication service with prebuilt UI components, billing by monthly retained users per app since February 2026, with a free tier covering 50,000 users.
ClerkvsNextAuth.js
Clerk is a hosted authentication and user management service with prebuilt UI components, billed by monthly retained users after a free tier.
Getting started
Create an application in the Clerk dashboard and copy the publishable and secret keys into .env.local as NEXT_PUBLIC_CLERK_PUBLISHABLE_KEY and CLERK_SECRET_KEY.
Install the Next.js SDK.
npm install @clerk/nextjsAdd proxy.ts (Next.js 16 and later) or middleware.ts (Next.js 15 and earlier) at the project root.
import { clerkMiddleware } from "@clerk/nextjs/server"; export default clerkMiddleware(); export const config = { matcher: [ "/((?!_next|[^?]*\\.(?:html?|css|js(?!on)|jpe?g|webp|png|gif|svg|ttf|woff2?|ico|csv|docx?|xlsx?|zip|webmanifest)).*)", "/(api|trpc)(.*)", "/__clerk/(.*)", ], };Wrap the app in ClerkProvider in app/layout.tsx and add the sign-in and user components.
import { ClerkProvider, Show, SignInButton, SignUpButton, UserButton } from "@clerk/nextjs"; export default function RootLayout({ children }: { children: React.ReactNode }) { return ( <html lang="en"> <body> <ClerkProvider> <Show when="signed-out"> <SignInButton /> <SignUpButton /> </Show> <Show when="signed-in"> <UserButton /> </Show> {children} </ClerkProvider> </body> </html> ); }
Questions about Clerk
How much does Clerk cost?
The Hobby plan is free for up to 50,000 monthly retained users per app. Pro costs $25 a month, or $20 a month billed yearly, with 50,000 users included and usage pricing from $0.02 per extra user after that.
What is a monthly retained user in Clerk?
A user who visits your app in a given month at least one day after signing up. People who sign up and never come back aren't counted.
When did Clerk change its pricing?
On 5 February 2026. The free allowance went from 10,000 users to 50,000 monthly retained users per app, and billing moved from monthly active users to monthly retained users.
Does Clerk's free plan include MFA and passkeys?
No. Multi-factor authentication, passkeys, enterprise SSO and removing the Clerk branding all need the Pro plan or higher.
Is Clerk open source?
No. Clerk is a hosted, proprietary service. Its client SDKs are published on GitHub, but the authentication backend isn't self-hostable.
Sources and links
Work on Clerk? Claim this listing. Something wrong or out of date? Suggest a correction. Stats come from the public GitHub and npm APIs and update every day.