head to head · open source
Better Auth vs pwd.sh
Better Auth has 30,062 GitHub stars, 2,906 forks, 723 open issues and last shipped yesterday. pwd.sh has 1,563 stars, 136 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 1 months ago. Better Auth leads on adoption by 1,823% (30,062 vs 1,563 stars). Better Auth is written in TypeScript under MIT; pwd.sh is written in Shell under MIT. Better Auth has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, pwd.sh 9%. Better Auth was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | pwd.sh | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 1.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | Shell |
| Last push | 2026-09-22 | 2026-08-24 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 136 |
| 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 pwd.sh if
- You want the pwd.sh feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You evaluated both and pwd.sh 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 pwd.sh
pwd.sh is a Bash script that manages text secrets such as passwords by storing each one in a GnuPG symmetric encrypted file, and it is for people who work in a terminal and prefer to keep their own encrypted store rather than hand it to a hosted password service.
read the full pwd.sh overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Better Auth or pwd.sh more popular?
Better Auth has 30,062 GitHub stars and pwd.sh has 1,563. Better Auth has the larger community by that measure.
Are Better Auth and pwd.sh free?
Both are open source. Better Auth is licensed under MIT and pwd.sh under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Better Auth and pwd.sh?
Better Auth is written in TypeScript and pwd.sh in Shell. 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 pwd.sh?
Choose Better Auth if you want the larger community (30,062 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose pwd.sh if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.