head to head · open source
Better Auth vs product-is
Better Auth has 30,162 GitHub stars, 2,941 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped yesterday. product-is has 882 stars, 1,033 forks, 1,632 open issues and last shipped today. Better Auth leads on adoption by 3,320% (30,162 vs 882 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; product-is is written in Java under Apache-2.0. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, product-is 117%. product-is was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 4 topic tags (authentication, oauth2, oidc, 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 | product-is | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 882 |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-10-04 | 2026-10-05 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.0K |
| 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 product-is if
- You want the product-is 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 product-is 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 product-is
WSO2 Identity Server is an open source identity and access management platform for Java based on premises and cloud deployments, aimed at teams that need to secure applications, APIs, workforce, consumer, and business customer logins under standards such as OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and SAML 2.0.
read the full product-is overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or product-is more popular?
Better Auth has 30,162 GitHub stars and product-is has 882. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and product-is free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and product-is under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and product-is?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and product-is 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 product-is?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,162 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose product-is if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.