head to head · open source
Better Auth vs jans
Better Auth has 30,234 GitHub stars, 2,955 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped today. jans has 652 stars, 176 forks, 489 open issues and last shipped today. Better Auth leads on adoption by 4,537% (30,234 vs 652 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; jans is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, jans 27%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (iam, oauth2, sso), 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 | jans | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 652 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 176 |
| 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 jans if
- You want the jans feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and jans 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 jans
Janssen is a Linux Foundation open source identity and access management project for teams that need to run OAuth 2.0/OpenID Connect single sign on, low code authentication flows, and policy based authorization on infrastructure they control.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or jans more popular?
Better Auth has 30,234 GitHub stars and jans has 652. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and jans free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and jans under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and jans?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and jans in Java. 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 jans?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,234 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose jans if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.