Clerk

Name: Clerk
Author: Clerk, Inc.

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.

By Clerk, Inc.FreemiumSince 2019Auth

Facts checked on 27 September 2026 against the sources listed at the end of this page.

Visit clerk.com Compare

Pricing: FreemiumPaid from $25 a month, or $20 a month billed yearly (Pro)
Open source: NoProprietary service; client SDKs published on GitHub
GitHub stars: 1,771+10 in the last 30 days
npm downloads a week: 3.1Mup 9% on the week before
Latest release: @clerk/tanstac…9 hours 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 alternatives

Tool	Pricing	GitHub stars
Better AuthOpen source TypeScript authentication framework that joined Vercel on 7 July 2026.	Open source	30.5k
WorkOSEnterprise-readiness platform adding SSO, directory sync, audit logs and user management to an app.	Freemium	227
KeycloakOpen source identity and access management with single sign-on, OpenID Connect and SAML.	Open source	37.6k
SuperTokensOpen source authentication platform, free to self-host with no limits, or managed cloud from $0.02 per MAU.	Freemium	15.3k
OryOpen source identity and access management platform, self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.	Freemium	13.9k
Auth0Identity and access management platform for authentication and single sign-on, owned by Okta.	Freemium	2.3k

All 9 alternatives to Clerk, side by side

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/nextjs
```

Add 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.