head to head · open source
Better Auth vs Authgear
Better Auth has 29,988 GitHub stars, 2,894 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Authgear has 2,054 stars, 124 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 1,360% (29,988 vs 2,054 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; Authgear is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Authgear 6%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (authentication, oauth2), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Better Auth | Authgear | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 124 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Better Auth if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Authgear if
- You want the Authgear feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Authgear fits your workflow better
About Better Auth
Better Auth is a framework agnostic authentication and authorization framework written in TypeScript. It targets the broader JavaScript/TypeScript ecosystem and is designed to integrate with any backend or frontend framework, including Next.js, Express, SvelteKit, and others. It provides a unified API surface for core identity workflows such as sign up, sign in, session management, and passwordless flows.
read the full Better Auth overview →
About Authgear
Authgear is open source identity and access management platform. It is managed identity platform for any app. It is open source Auth0, Clerk, Firebase Auth alternative. It is written in Go, licensed Apache 2.0, and lives in identity and access management ecosystem.
read the full Authgear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or Authgear more popular?
Better Auth has 29,988 GitHub stars and Authgear has 2,054. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and Authgear free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and Authgear under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and Authgear?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and Authgear in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Better Auth or Authgear?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (29,988 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Authgear if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.