head to head · open source
Better Auth vs samlify
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars, 2,893 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. samlify has 661 stars, 233 forks, 53 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Better Auth leads on adoption by 4,439% (30,000 vs 661 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; samlify is written in TypeScript under MIT. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, samlify 35%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (sso, typescript), 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 | samlify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 661 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-08-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 233 |
| 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 samlify if
- You want the samlify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and samlify 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 samlify
Node.js SAML 2.0 library for Single Sign On, written in TypeScript under the MIT licence, for developers adding SAML SSO to Node.js applications as either a Service Provider or an Identity Provider.
read the full samlify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or samlify more popular?
Better Auth has 30,000 GitHub stars and samlify has 661. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and samlify free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and samlify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and samlify?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and samlify in TypeScript. 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 samlify?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,000 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose samlify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.