Clerk Review
Drop-in login, signup, and user management components for your app
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Looking for a Clerk alternative? See our ranked comparison.→What is Clerk?
Clerk is a hosted authentication and user management service. You drop its prebuilt components into your app for sign-in, sign-up, account switching, and profile management instead of building those screens and the session logic behind them yourself.
It covers the usual identity methods (email/password, magic links, social login, passkeys, MFA) plus B2B features like organizations, roles, and SAML/SSO for teams that need to support their customers' identity providers. It also has add-on modules for subscription billing and admin impersonation, so it can end up handling more than just login for apps that lean on it.
Clerk screenshots
Who it's for
- ✓ Teams shipping a Next.js, React, or similar app that want working login and user management on day one
- ✓ SaaS products that need B2B features like organizations and SSO without building them from scratch
Who should look elsewhere
- ✗ Apps with very high user counts where per-MRU costs would beat a self-hosted or flat-fee alternative
- ✗ Teams that want to fully own their auth data and infrastructure rather than depend on a hosted vendor
Pros
- + Prebuilt UI components handle login, signup, and account management with little custom code
- + Free tier covers 50,000 monthly retained users, generous enough for most early-stage apps
- + Organizations, roles, and SAML SSO are built in for teams selling to other businesses
- + Pricing page publishes exact rates and overage costs instead of hiding behind a sales call
Cons
- – B2B features, admin tools, and built-in billing are all separate paid add-ons on top of the base plan
- – Costs scale with monthly retained users, so pricing can climb fast once an app has real usage
- – Enterprise plan is quote-only and requires annual billing
Clerk pricing
What you pay for
You pay per app based on how many users actually come back (MRU), not raw signups, plus optional add-ons for B2B org support, admin tools, and billing. The free Hobby plan covers up to 50,000 MRUs, so most side projects and early-stage apps never pay anything. Pricing is fully public on the site down to overage rates; only Enterprise is quote-only.
At about $25/month to start, it sits mid-pack on price in Authentication & User Management.
| Plan | Price | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Hobby | Free | 50,000 monthly retained users (MRU) per app · Up to 3 dashboard seats |
| Pro | $25/mo | $20/month if billed annually · 50,000 MRUs included, then $0.02 per extra MRU · 1 enterprise SSO connection included · Up to 3 dashboard seats |
| Business | $300/mo | $250/month if billed annually · 50,000 MRUs included, then volume pricing · 10 dashboard seats included, $20/month per extra seat |
| Enterprise | Custom | Annual billing only · 99.99% uptime SLA · HIPAA compliance available with a BAA |
Clerk bills by monthly retained users (MRU), a user only counts once they return to your app at least 24 hours after signing up. Pro and Business both include 50,000 MRUs before overage kicks in; overage starts at $0.02 per extra MRU per month and steps down at higher volume tiers. Pro includes one enterprise SSO connection, with additional connections priced at $75/month each. Add-ons cost extra: B2B authentication is $100/month ($85 annually) for 100 monthly retained organizations, admin features are $100/month ($85 annually) for unlimited impersonation sessions, and built-in billing costs 0.7% of billing volume on top of Stripe's own fees. Prices shown are monthly; annual billing lowers the Pro and Business base price.
Pricing verified July 22, 2026 · source
How Clerk's pricing compares
Clerk next to its closest alternatives on entry price, billing, and whether pricing is public.
| Tool | Starting price | Billing | Free option | Pricing disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clerk | $25/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| Auth0 | $35/user/mo | tiered | Yes | Partly public |
| WorkOS | Free | usage-based | Yes | Partly public |
| Stytch | Free | usage-based | Yes | Partly public |
| SuperTokens | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
| Frontegg | Free tier + custom | usage-based | Yes | Not disclosed |
Is Clerk still actively developed?
Last significant update: July 2026. Clerk made default OAuth scopes for dynamic client registration configurable from the Dashboard or Backend API, useful when an OAuth client doesn't send its own scope parameter.
Top Clerk alternatives
Clerk FAQ
Is Clerk free?+
Yes, the Hobby plan is free and covers up to 50,000 monthly retained users per app, though it's capped at 3 dashboard seats.
How does Clerk count users for billing?+
Clerk bills by monthly retained users (MRU), meaning a user only counts if they return to your app at least 24 hours after signing up. Organizations are billed the same way as monthly retained organizations.
Do I need to pay extra for SSO or B2B features?+
The Pro plan includes one enterprise SSO connection. Broader B2B authentication for multiple organizations is a separate add-on at $100/month ($85/month billed annually).
Is Clerk pricing negotiable?+
Only the Enterprise tier is quote-only and requires talking to sales. Hobby, Pro, and Business prices are published on the pricing page.