head to head · open source
Better Auth vs pocket-id
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars, 2,893 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. pocket-id has 9,222 stars, 310 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Better Auth leads on adoption by 225% (30,000 vs 9,222 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; pocket-id is written in Go under BSD-2-Clause. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pocket-id 3%. pocket-id 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 | pocket-id | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 9.2K |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 310 |
| 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 pocket-id if
- You want the pocket-id feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and pocket-id 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 pocket-id
Pocket ID is a self hosted, OpenID Connect Certified™ and OAuth 2.0 provider, written in Go, that authenticates users with passkeys and passwords never, aimed at anyone who wants single sign on for their own applications without standing up a heavyweight identity platform.
read the full pocket-id overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or pocket-id more popular?
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars and pocket-id has 9,222. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and pocket-id free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and pocket-id under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and pocket-id?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and pocket-id 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 pocket-id?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,000 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pocket-id if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.