Clerk

Clerk handles user accounts for apps. Instead of building sign-up, login, password resets and profile pages yourself, you drop in Clerk's ready-made screens and it handles the rest: email codes, magic links, passkeys, and sign-in with Google, Apple or GitHub. It also protects sign-ups from bots and brute-force attacks.

It's a favourite with people building apps with AI because Claude Code and app builders know it well, and setup in a Next.js app is a few lines. Organisations let customers create teams and invite colleagues, and Clerk Billing connects to Stripe so you can charge subscriptions and limit features to a plan without building a pricing page.

The free plan is generous at 50,000 monthly users per app, counted as people who come back at least a day after signing up. The catch is the extras: removing Clerk's branding, multi-factor login and SMS codes need Pro, and enterprise single sign-on connections cost $75 a month each after the first.

• Indie builders
• Startups
• SaaS companies
• Developers

Anyone building a web or mobile app who needs user accounts and logins without writing them from scratch.

• Prebuilt screens

  Sign-up, sign-in and user profile pages you add with a few lines of code and style to match your brand.

• Every login method

  Passwords, email codes, magic links, passkeys, SMS and social logins like Google, Apple and GitHub.

• Organisations

  Let customers create team accounts, invite colleagues and give them roles.

• Bot and fraud protection

  Brute-force prevention, captchas and device checks on every sign-up and sign-in.

• Clerk Billing

  Charge subscriptions through Stripe and limit features by plan, with ready-made pricing and account pages.

• Hobby

  Free

  New apps and side projects.

  • 50,000 monthly users per app
  • Unlimited apps
  • Up to 3 social logins
  • Clerk branding on screens
• Our pick

  Pro

  $20/mo billed yearly, or $25 monthly

  Apps with paying customers.

  • 50,000 monthly users included, then $0.02 each
  • No Clerk branding
  • Multi-factor login and SMS codes
  • 1 enterprise SSO connection

• Business

  $250/mo billed yearly, or $300 monthly

  Growing companies that need compliance paperwork.

  • 10 dashboard seats
  • SOC 2 report
  • Advanced bot protection
  • Priority support

• Enterprise

  Custom

  Large companies with strict security needs.

  • 99.99% uptime SLA
  • HIPAA option
  • Dedicated account manager

Prices in USD unless noted, checked 3 November 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on their site before you buy.

Ways Clerk can slot into your week.

1. 1

   Add logins to an AI-built app

   Ask Claude Code to add Clerk to your Next.js app and get working sign-up and Google login in minutes.

2. 2

   A members area

   Put paid content or a client portal behind a login, with each person seeing only their own stuff.

3. 3

   Charge for your app

   Use Clerk Billing to sell monthly plans and give paying users extra features.

It handles accounts while your app runs on Vercel and stores data in Supabase, Neon or Convex. Stripe handles the payments behind Clerk Billing.

The closest alternatives to Clerk in the library, best rated first.

• 

  Cloudflare

  4.5

  Best for making any website faster and safer for free

  Compare with Clerk
• 

  Vercel

  4.4

  Best for putting a website built with Claude Code live

  Compare with Clerk
• 

  Supabase

  4.3

  Best for backend for AI-built apps

  Compare with Clerk
• 

  Neon

  4.2

  Best for postgres for side projects

  Compare with Clerk