head to head · open source
Better Auth vs Permify
Better Auth has 29,988 GitHub stars, 2,894 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Permify has 5,952 stars, 323 forks, 75 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 404% (29,988 vs 5,952 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; Permify is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, Permify 5%. 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 | Permify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 6.0K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 323 |
| 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 Permify if
- You want the Permify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Permify 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 Permify
Permify is an open source authorization service for building and managing fine grained, scalable, and extensible access controls for applications and services. It is inspired by Google's consistent, global authorization system, Zanzibar, and it lives in the Go ecosystem, distributed under the AGPL 3.0 license. The project is categorized under Security & Privacy, specifically Identity & Access Management, and it has been acquired by FusionAuth.
read the full Permify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or Permify more popular?
Better Auth has 29,988 GitHub stars and Permify has 5,952. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and Permify free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and Permify under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and Permify?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and Permify 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 Permify?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (29,988 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Permify if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.