head to head · open source
Better Auth vs dex
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars, 3,052 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dex has 11,227 stars, 2,015 forks, 547 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 172% (30,553 vs 11,227 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 | ★ 31K | ★ 11K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| 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 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
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 dex
dex A federated OpenID Connect provider Dex is an identity service that uses [OpenID Connect][openid connect] to drive authentication for other apps. Dex acts as a portal to other identity providers through "connectors." This lets dex defer authentication to LDAP servers, SAML providers, or established identity providers like GitHub, Google, and Active Directory. Clients write their authentication logic once to talk to dex, then dex handles the protocols for a given backend. ID Tokens ID Tokens are an OAuth2 extension introduced by OpenID Connect and dex's primary feature. ID Tokens are [JSON Web Tokens][jwt io]…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or dex more popular?
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars and dex has 11,227. 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 (30,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose dex if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.