head to head · open source
Better Auth vs Authgear
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars, 3,052 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Authgear has 2,139 stars, 130 forks, 368 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 1,328% (30,553 vs 2,139 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%. Authgear 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 | ★ 31K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 130 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Better Auth if
- You weight community size — 31K 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
Discord · Website · Issues Better Auth Better Auth is a framework agnostic authentication (and authorization) framework for TypeScript. It provides a comprehensive set of features out of the box and includes a plugin ecosystem that simplifies adding advanced functionalities with minimal code in a short amount of time. Whether you need 2FA, multi tenant support, or other complex features, it lets you focus on building your actual application instead of reinventing the wheel. Why Better Auth Authentication in the TypeScript ecosystem is a half solved problem. Other open source libraries often require a lot of…
read the full Better Auth overview →
About Authgear
📘 Docs ☁️ SaaS Cloud ✨ Demo 💬 Discord Authgear: Open source alternative to Auth0 / Clerk / Firebase Auth Authgear is an open source extensible turnkey solution for all of your consumer authentication needs. Authgear gets you started in 5 minutes with developer friendly SDKs and a comprehensive portal. Available for self hosting and on Authgear Cloud. With a wide range of out of the box features, it's perfect for SaaS product and multi apps ecosystem, such as: Passwordless login: Magic link/OTP with Email, SMS, WhatsApp Passkeys Pre built signup/login page Pre built user account settings page Biometric Login on…
read the full Authgear overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or Authgear more popular?
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars and Authgear has 2,139. 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 (30,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Authgear if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.