head to head · open source
Better Auth vs privacyidea
Better Auth has 30,008 GitHub stars, 2,895 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. privacyidea has 1,774 stars, 361 forks, 193 open issues and last shipped today. Better Auth leads on adoption by 1,592% (30,008 vs 1,774 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; privacyidea is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, privacyidea 20%. privacyidea was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (authentication), 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 | privacyidea | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 361 |
| 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 privacyidea if
- You want the privacyidea feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and privacyidea 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 privacyidea
privacyIDEA is an open source, self hosted multi factor authentication platform, written in Python and licensed under AGPL 3.0, for organisations that need to add a second factor to many different applications at once while keeping sensitive user data inside their own infrastructure.
read the full privacyidea overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or privacyidea more popular?
Better Auth has 30,008 GitHub stars and privacyidea has 1,774. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and privacyidea free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and privacyidea under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and privacyidea?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and privacyidea in Python. 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 privacyidea?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,008 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose privacyidea if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.