head to head · open source
Better Auth vs smart-sso
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars, 3,052 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. smart-sso has 2,300 stars, 1,218 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Better Auth leads on adoption by 1,228% (30,553 vs 2,300 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; smart-sso is written in Java under MIT. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, smart-sso 53%. 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 (authentication, 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 | smart-sso | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 31K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-30 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Better Auth if
- You weight community size — 31K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick smart-sso if
- You want the smart-sso feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and smart-sso fits your workflow better
About Better Auth
Discord · Website · Issues Better Auth Better Auth is a framework agnostic authentication (and authorization) framework for TypeScript. It provides a comprehensive set of features out of the box and includes a plugin ecosystem that simplifies adding advanced functionalities with minimal code in a short amount of time. Whether you need 2FA, multi tenant support, or other complex features, it lets you focus on building your actual application instead of reinventing the wheel. Why Better Auth Authentication in the TypeScript ecosystem is a half solved problem. Other open source libraries often require a lot of…
read the full Better Auth overview →
About smart-sso
Smart SSO English 简体中文 Smart SSO is a lightweight authentication and authorization center (SSO) built on Spring Boot 3 and the OAuth 2.0 authorization code flow. It ships SSO login/logout, silent token renewal, forced logout, button level permissions and distributed deployment support — plus a zero dependency demo mode that starts with a single command, no database required. English guides for client integration, architecture, configuration and frequently asked questions are available under docs/ . Chinese originals remain available from the language switcher. Features 1. Lightweight — minimal implementation on…
read the full smart-sso overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or smart-sso more popular?
Better Auth has 30,553 GitHub stars and smart-sso has 2,300. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and smart-sso free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and smart-sso under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and smart-sso?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and smart-sso 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 smart-sso?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,553 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose smart-sso if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.