head to head · open source
Better Auth vs vouch-proxy
Better Auth has 30,062 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vouch-proxy has 3,282 stars, 337 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. Better Auth leads on adoption by 816% (30,062 vs 3,282 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; vouch-proxy is written in Go under MIT. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, vouch-proxy 10%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (authentication, oauth2, 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 | vouch-proxy | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-07-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 337 |
| 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 vouch-proxy if
- You want the vouch-proxy feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and vouch-proxy 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 vouch-proxy
Vouch Proxy is a Go based single sign on gateway that protects websites behind Nginx by validating OAuth and OpenID Connect logins through Nginx's auth request module, and it is built for operators who already run Nginx and want one login layer in front of everything they host.
read the full vouch-proxy overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or vouch-proxy more popular?
Better Auth has 30,062 GitHub stars and vouch-proxy has 3,282. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and vouch-proxy free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and vouch-proxy under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and vouch-proxy?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and vouch-proxy 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 vouch-proxy?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,062 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vouch-proxy if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.