head to head · open source
Better Auth vs Ory
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars, 3,052 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Ory has 13,950 stars, 1,212 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Better Auth leads on adoption by 119% (30,553 vs 13,950 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; Ory is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Ory 9%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Ory | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 14K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-07-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| 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 Ory if
- You want the Ory 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 Ory 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 Ory
Chat · Discussions · Newsletter · Docs · Try Ory Network · Jobs Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system for cloud native applications. It centralizes login, registration, recovery, verification, and profile management flows so your services consume them instead of reimplementing them. Table of contents What is Ory Kratos? Why Ory Kratos Migrating from Auth0, Okta, and similar providers Deployment options Use Ory Kratos on the Ory Network Self host Ory Kratos Quickstart Who is using it? What is Ory Kratos? Ory Kratos is an API first identity and user management system that follows cloud…
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or Ory more popular?
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars and Ory has 13,950. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and Ory free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and Ory under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and Ory?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and Ory 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 Ory?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Ory if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.