head to head · open source
Better Auth vs dex
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars, 2,893 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dex has 11,097 stars, 1,981 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 170% (30,000 vs 11,097 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; dex is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, dex 18%. dex was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (oidc), 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 | dex | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 dex if
- You want the dex 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 dex 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 dex
Dex is an OpenID Connect (OIDC) and OAuth 2.0 identity provider written in Go and released under the Apache 2.0 licence, built for teams that want one authentication endpoint in front of many upstream identity sources instead of one integration per application.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or dex more popular?
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars and dex has 11,097. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and dex free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and dex under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and dex?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and dex 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 dex?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,000 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.