Auth0 free tier too limited? Compare free authentication alternatives: Clerk, WorkOS, Supabase Auth, Firebase Auth, Logto, FusionAuth, Keycloak, and more. Catalogue dates August to September 2026.
Auth0 is a powerful identity platform, but its pricing is one of the steepest cliffs in developer tools. The free tier gives you 25K MAU — generous for prototyping. But the moment you outgrow it, B2C paid plans start with Essentials at $35 a month for 500 MAU, and Professional at $240 a month; B2B plans start at $150.
The pricing pain is compounded by complexity. Auth0's tenant model, rule/action system, and connection limits create billing surprises. Teams regularly discover they need features (SSO, MFA customization, branding removal) that are locked behind higher tiers. "Auth0 alternatives" remains one of the most consistently searched developer queries.
The authentication landscape in 2026 offers real competition. Managed platforms (Clerk, WorkOS, Stytch) provide modern DX with generous free tiers. Open-source solutions (Keycloak, FusionAuth, Ory, Logto) give you unlimited users when self-hosted. And BaaS platforms (Supabase, Firebase) include auth as part of a broader free tier. The right choice depends on whether you prioritize DX, cost, or control.
Limits Increased
Auth0 increased free tier from 7,500 to 25,000 monthly active users. Largest free tier expansion since Okta acquisition. Makes Auth0 competitive with Clerk and Firebase Auth on free tier Source ↗
Before: Free tier: 7,500 MAU, unlimited social connections, 2 organizations After: Free tier: 25,000 MAU (+233%), unlimited social connections, 5 organizations. Actions, Branding, MFA included
Postgres development platform: database, Auth, Storage, Realtime and Edge Functions. The Free plan is $0: unlimited API requests, 50,000 monthly active users, a 500 MB database on a shared CPU with 500 MB RAM, 5 GB egress plus 5 GB cached egress, 1 GB file storage, 500,000 Edge Function invocations, and Realtime with 200 concurrent connections and 2 million messages a month. Free projects are paused after 1 week of inactivity, with a limit of 2 active projects. Pro starts at $25 a month for the first project and includes $10 a month of compute credits, enough for one Micro instance.
User Management is free for up to 1 million users. Single Sign-On starts at $125/connection. Directory Sync starts at $125/connection. Audit Logs are free with paid options for log streaming and event retention. Radar is free for the first 1,000 checks.
Free OSS (Apache 2.0). Red Hat-backed identity and access management. SSO, OIDC, SAML, LDAP, social login, MFA, fine-grained authorization. Self-hosted with no user limitsThe page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-09-02, so we cannot confirm these terms today.
Identity platform — "FusionAuth Community is free and unlimited": self-host it on your own infrastructure, with the core authentication features and community support (forums, Slack, GitHub).
Open-source identity solution — Free tier is $0/month for up to 50,000 MAU and 50K tokens. Includes user authentication, machine-to-machine apps, account APIs, audit logs, and user management. Additional features like RBAC, MFA, and Organizations are paid add-ons.
Open-source identity infrastructure — The 'Developer' tier is free, includes 1 member, 0 production environments, 2 development environments, and no included monthly credit.
*FusionAuth and Keycloak are free self-hosted with no user limits. WorkOS leads managed platforms at 1M MAU free (AuthKit). Clerk and Logto both offer 50K MAU. Supabase and Firebase bundle auth into broader BaaS free tiers.
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