WorkOS is the cheapest authentication provider at scale for B2B apps: user management is free up to 1 million monthly active users, so 5 enterprise SSO connections at $125 each are the whole bill. Supabase Auth and Firebase Auth are the cheapest per user for consumer-heavy apps, at about $2,964 and $4,429 a month at 1 million users on our arithmetic. Clerk costs $17,525 a month at that size with 5 SSO connections, and Auth0 moves to custom pricing well before 100,000 users.
Eight auth providers priced at 10,000, 100,000 and 1 million monthly active users, each with 5 enterprise SSO customers.
Authentication pricing looks similar at 10,000 users and diverges by a factor of 25 or more at 1 million. The difference comes from three billing units: monthly active users (MAU), enterprise SSO connections, and SSO users. WorkOS charges almost nothing per user but bills each SSO connection; Supabase and Firebase charge fractions of a cent per user and bill SSO per user; Clerk and Kinde charge a cent or two per user above an included allowance.
To make the numbers comparable, we priced one scenario at three sizes: a SaaS app with 10,000, 100,000 or 1,000,000 monthly active users, of which 5 enterprise customers sign in through their own SAML or OIDC identity provider, bringing 1,000 SSO users in total. Prices were read on vendor pricing pages on October 28, 2026, in US dollars, on monthly list prices unless a plan is only sold annually.
Toolradar data: our identity and access category lists 109 tools, with 58%% offering a free or freemium plan and 41%% paid only. It also covers password managers and workforce identity, so it is broader than developer auth APIs; see the category statistics.
Methodology: we compared eight auth providers from that category on their own pricing pages, computed each bill with the arithmetic shown below, and ranked them on cost at scale, SSO pricing and free-tier limits. The figures exclude taxes, SMS fees, add-ons and, for Supabase and Firebase, database or compute usage.
Top Picks
Selected by computing each provider's monthly bill from its published per-user and per-connection prices at three user volumes. How we rate
Auth and enterprise SSO for B2B apps, free for user management up to 1 million users.
Starting price
Free to 1M users; SSO $125/connection/mo
4.5 (15 reviews)
Best for
B2B SaaS teams selling to enterprises that need SSO and SCIM.
Postgres platform with built-in auth priced at fractions of a cent per user.
Starting price
$25 /mo Pro, 100,000 MAU included
4.6 (233 reviews)
Best for
Teams building on Supabase that want the lowest per-user auth cost.
Google's app platform with authentication upgraded through Identity Platform.
Starting price
Free to 50k MAU, then $0.0055/MAU
4.6 (1,073 reviews)
Best for
Mobile and consumer apps already on Google Cloud.
| Tool | Starting price | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| WorkOS | Free to 1M users; SSO $125/connection/mo | 4.5 15 reviews | B2B SaaS teams selling to enterprises that need SSO and SCIM. |
| Supabase | $25/mo Pro, 100,000 MAU included | 4.6 233 reviews | Teams building on Supabase that want the lowest per-user auth cost. |
| Firebase | Free to 50k MAU, then $0.0055/MAU | 4.6 1,073 reviews | Mobile and consumer apps already on Google Cloud. |
| Clerk | $25/mo Pro; $20/mo billed annually | 4.8 126 reviews | Startups that want polished sign-in UI and user management in an afternoon. |
| Kinde | $75/mo Plus, 10,500 MAU included | n/a | SaaS teams that want auth, subscription billing and SSO from one vendor. |
| Stytch | Free to 10,000 MAU and 5 SSO | 4.8 37 reviews | Early-stage B2B apps that need SSO for a few customers at no cost. |
| Descope | $249/mo Pro, billed annually | 4.8 86 reviews | Teams that want visual auth flows and SSO for third-party apps. |
| Auth0 | Free to 25,000 MAU; from $35/mo | 4.5 424 reviews | Enterprises that want a mature platform and will negotiate a contract. |
- Starting price
- Free to 1M users; SSO $125/connection/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.5 (15 reviews)
Best for: B2B SaaS teams selling to enterprises that need SSO and SCIM.
- Pro: AuthKit user management is free up to 1 million monthly active users.
- Pro: SSO price drops to $100 per connection from the 16th and $65 from the 51st.
- Pro: Every connection costs the same regardless of identity provider or user count.
- Con: Above 1 million users, each additional million costs $2,500 a month.
- Con: Five SSO customers cost more a month than Supabase's whole bill at 100k users.
WorkOS offers a generous freemium model for AuthKit (first 1M users free) and Radar (first 1K checks free), making it very accessible for startups.
Watch out
Radar overage: $100/50K checks after 1K free
- Starting price
- $25/mo Pro, 100,000 MAU included
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.6 (233 reviews)
Best for: Teams building on Supabase that want the lowest per-user auth cost.
- Pro: Pro includes 100,000 MAU, then $0.00325 per MAU.
- Pro: SAML SSO billed per SSO user, $0.015 each above 50, instead of per connection.
- Pro: Social OAuth, anonymous sign-ins and basic MFA on every plan.
- Con: Free projects pause after 1 week of inactivity and are limited to 2 active projects.
- Con: Phone-based MFA is a paid monthly add-on on Pro, billed per project.
Supabase is the open-source Firebase alternative that developers actually want to use, Postgres database, authentication, storage, edge functions, and real-time subscriptions in one platform.
Watch out
Free projects pause after 7 days of inactivity: your app goes offline until someone visits it again. Not suitable for any production use, only for development and demos
- Starting price
- Free to 50k MAU, then $0.0055/MAU
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.6 (1,073 reviews)
Best for: Mobile and consumer apps already on Google Cloud.
- Pro: The first 50,000 MAU are free, and inactive users are stored at no cost.
- Pro: Rates fall with volume: $0.0046 per MAU from 100,000 and $0.0032 from 1 million.
- Pro: SAML and OIDC users are free up to 50 a month.
- Con: SSO users above 50 are billed at the same per-user rate as Supabase, which adds up for large enterprise tenants.
- Con: SMS for phone auth is billed separately by destination country.
Firebase's Spark tier is generous for MVPs.
- Starting price
- $25/mo Pro; $20/mo billed annually
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.8 (126 reviews)
Best for: Startups that want polished sign-in UI and user management in an afternoon.
- Pro: 50,000 monthly retained users included per app on every plan, Free included.
- Pro: A user counts only after returning 24+ hours after signing up.
- Pro: Unlimited applications on every plan.
- Con: At 1 million users the per-user charges reach $17,200 a month before SSO.
- Con: Free has no SSO, and each Pro connection after the first adds a monthly fee.
Clerk offers the most developer-friendly auth with 50K free users, enough for most startups to reach revenue before paying.
Watch out
MRU counts retained users, not active, deleted users still count until month resets
- Starting price
- $75/mo Plus, 10,500 MAU included
- Free plan
- Yes
Best for: SaaS teams that want auth, subscription billing and SSO from one vendor.
- Pro: Plus includes enterprise SSO with no per-connection fee.
- Pro: Users on paid subscriptions billed through Kinde are not counted as MAU.
- Pro: Free plan covers 10,500 MAU with a custom domain.
- Con: Plus charges $0.0163 per extra MAU, five times Supabase's rate.
- Con: Organizations beyond 50 cost $0.47 each a month on Plus.
Kinde includes 10,500 MAU on every plan.
Watch out
Paid-plan base fee and additional MAU/organization usage can both apply.
- Starting price
- Free to 10,000 MAU and 5 SSO
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.8 (37 reviews)
Best for: Early-stage B2B apps that need SSO for a few customers at no cost.
- Pro: Always-free tier includes 10,000 MAU and 5 SSO or SCIM connections.
- Pro: Built-in multi-tenancy, RBAC and an admin portal UI.
- Pro: Fraud and risk tools with 10,000 free fingerprints.
- Con: Each connection beyond 5 costs the same monthly fee as a WorkOS connection.
- Con: Branding removal is a $99 add-on; check the per-user rate above 10,000 in Stytch's calculator.
Stytch's pricing is quite fair and generous, especially with a robust free tier offering 5,000 MAUs.
Watch out
No explicit mention of overage fees beyond MAU
- Starting price
- $249/mo Pro, billed annually
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.8 (86 reviews)
Best for: Teams that want visual auth flows and SSO for third-party apps.
- Pro: Free Forever includes 7,500 MAU and 3 SSO connections with no watermark.
- Pro: Extra SSO connections cost $50 a month, the lowest per-connection fee here.
- Pro: Pro adds self-service SSO setup and a 99.99% SLA.
- Con: Each MAU above the allowance costs $0.05, so 1 million users runs near $50,000 a month.
- Con: Paid plans are billed annually; the Free plan has no overages and must be upgraded.
Descope's pricing is quite generous, especially with a robust Free tier offering 7,500 MAUs and all auth methods.
Watch out
Overage fees for MAUs beyond tier limits
- Starting price
- Free to 25,000 MAU; from $35/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- Rating
- 4.5 (424 reviews)
Best for: Enterprises that want a mature platform and will negotiate a contract.
- Pro: Free covers 25,000 MAU with 1 enterprise connection and self-service SSO.
- Pro: Startup program offers 100,000 external MAU free for a year.
- Pro: Private cloud deployments for data residency.
- Con: Essentials at $35 and Professional at $240 a month cover only 500 MAU.
- Con: The public calculator stops at 30,000+ MAU, so larger volumes need a sales quote.
Auth0's free tier at 25,000 MAUs is the most generous in the identity space, far ahead of Firebase Auth (free at 50K MAUs but with fewer features) and Clerk (500 MAUs free).
Watch out
The free plan lacks separate development and production environments. Running auth against production data during development is a real compliance and security risk that most teams eventually pay to fix.
Other Identity & Access tools worth considering
More published tools from our Identity & Access category, ordered by our category ranking. They are not part of the editorial picks above.
How auth providers bill
An authentication provider handles sign-up, login, sessions, multi-factor authentication and, for B2B apps, enterprise single sign-on (SSO) through Okta, Microsoft Entra ID or Google Workspace. You pay for the users who sign in each month and, on many plans, for each enterprise customer you connect.
Per-user billing is the main cost for consumer apps. Supabase includes 100,000 MAU on Pro, Firebase's Identity Platform makes the first 50,000 MAU free, and Clerk includes 50,000 monthly retained users per app on every plan. Above those allowances the rate per user decides the bill.
Per-connection billing dominates B2B apps. Each enterprise customer with its own identity provider is one SSO connection: WorkOS and Stytch charge a flat monthly fee per connection, Clerk bills each connection after the first, and Descope charges $50 for each one beyond its included five. Supabase and Firebase instead bill each SSO user above 50 free ones.
Counting rules differ. Clerk counts a user only when they return 24 hours or more after signing up, Kinde does not count users on paid subscriptions billed through Kinde, and WorkOS counts anyone who signs up, signs in or updates a profile in the calendar month.
The computed bill at 10k, 100k and 1M users
Each total adds the plan fee, per-user charges above the allowance and the SSO cost for 5 customers with 1,000 SSO users in total. All figures are our arithmetic on list prices read on October 28, 2026.
WorkOS: AuthKit is free up to 1 million users, and 5 SSO connections at $125 each come to $625 a month at every size in this scenario.
Clerk Pro: the plan fee is $25 a month, 50,000 users are included, the next 50,000 cost $0.02 each ($1,000) and users from 100,001 to 1 million cost $0.018 each ($16,200). One SSO connection is included and 4 more cost $75 each ($300). That gives $325 at 10k, $1,325 at 100k and $17,525 at 1 million.
Supabase Pro: the plan fee includes 100,000 MAU, then $0.00325 per MAU, and SAML SSO users cost $0.015 each above 50 (950 users at that rate = $14.25). Totals: $39.25 at 10k and 100k, and $2,964.25 at 1 million once 900,000 extra users add $2,925.
Firebase Authentication with Identity Platform: the first 50,000 MAU are free, then $0.0055 per MAU up to 100,000 and $0.0046 up to 1 million, plus the same SSO-user charge as Supabase. Totals: $14.25, $289.25 and $4,429.25.
Kinde Plus: the plan fee includes enterprise SSO and 10,500 MAU, then $0.0163 per MAU. Totals: the plan fee alone at 10k, $1,533.85 at 100k and $16,203.85 at 1 million.
Descope: Pro ($249 a month, billed annually) covers 10,000 MAU and 5 SSO connections. Above that, Growth ($799, 25,000 MAU) plus $0.05 per extra MAU is cheaper: $4,549 at 100k and $49,549 at 1 million.
Key Features to Look For
Per-user rate above the allowance (Essential)
At 1 million users the rate per user matters most: $0.00325 on Supabase versus $0.05 on Descope is a 15x difference on the same traffic.
Enterprise SSO pricing model (Essential)
Per-connection pricing (WorkOS, Stytch, Clerk, Descope) suits few large customers; per-SSO-user pricing (Supabase, Firebase) suits many small enterprise customers.
Counting rules (Essential)
Read how a user is counted. Clerk's retained-user rule and Kinde's exemption for billed users can cut the billable count well below raw sign-ins.
Directory sync (SCIM) (Important)
Enterprise buyers often ask for automatic provisioning. WorkOS prices Directory Sync at the same rate as SSO, and Clerk starts billing it on January 1, 2027.
Prebuilt UI and SDKs (Important)
Drop-in sign-in components save engineering time. Clerk and Stytch list prebuilt UI components, and Descope lists self-service admin widgets.
MFA and SMS costs (Important)
SMS codes are billed on top. Clerk charges $0.01 per SMS in the US and Canada, and Supabase sells phone-based MFA as a monthly add-on on Pro.
Lock-in and export (Important)
Password hashes and user metadata must be exportable to switch. Check the export path before you reach the volume where switching would save money.
Pick the billing model that matches your users
-
B2B SaaS with a handful of large enterprise customers: WorkOS keeps per-user cost at zero up to 1 million users and charges only per connection.
-
Consumer app with high volume and few SSO users: Supabase or Firebase, whose per-user rates are the lowest published here.
-
Startup that wants prebuilt UI and fast setup at small scale: Clerk or Kinde, then re-price at 100,000 users when per-user charges start to bite.
-
Team already on Supabase or Google Cloud: use the built-in auth first; moving later costs more than the price gap at low volume.
Evaluation Checklist
Count real monthly active users from your logs, and how many return after their first day.
List current and expected enterprise customers that will need SSO or SCIM.
Price each provider at today's volume and at 10x, using the vendor's own tier table.
Add SMS, MFA and branding add-ons that your plan needs.
Confirm whether the plan is sold monthly or only annually.
Test exporting users and password hashes before committing.
Pricing Overview
Free tiers
$0
Starter paid plans
Clerk Pro, Supabase Pro, Kinde Pro and Plus: production features, higher allowances and per-user overage.
From $25/mo
B2B and growth plans
Auth0 Professional at 500 MAU, Clerk Business, Descope Pro and Growth: more SSO connections, tenants and compliance features.
$240-$799/mo
Enterprise
Custom user tiers, SLAs, volume discounts and private deployments at Auth0, Descope, Supabase and WorkOS.
Contact sales
Pricing Comparison
| Provider and plan | 10k MAU | 100k MAU | 1M MAU |
|---|---|---|---|
WorkOS AuthKit + SSO | $625 | $625 | $625 |
Supabase Pro | $39.25 | $39.25 | $2,964.25 |
Firebase Auth (Identity Platform) | $14.25 | $289.25 | $4,429.25 |
Clerk Pro | $325 | $1,325 | $17,525 |
Kinde Plus | $75 | $1,533.85 | $16,203.85 |
Descope Pro, then Growth | $249 (Pro, annual) | $4,549 (Growth) | $49,549 (Growth) |
Stytch | $0 (5 SSO included) | Check Stytch's calculator | Check Stytch's calculator |
B2B plan needed for 5 connections | Sales quote | Sales quote |
Our arithmetic for 5 enterprise SSO customers with 1,000 SSO users in total, using prices checked on October 28, 2026 on WorkOS pricing, Supabase pricing, Firebase pricing, Identity Platform pricing, Clerk pricing, Kinde pricing, Descope pricing, Stytch pricing and Auth0 pricing. Supabase and Firebase totals exclude database and compute usage. Clerk counts retained users, so its billable count can be lower than MAU.
Mistakes to Avoid
- ×
Comparing free tiers instead of the bill at the user count you expect in 12 months.
- ×
Ignoring SSO: five enterprise customers can cost more than every consumer user combined on WorkOS-style pricing.
- ×
- ×
- ×
Picking a provider whose per-user rate is fine at 10,000 users but costs five figures a month at 1 million.
- ×
Forgetting SMS charges for phone sign-in and MFA.
Expert Tips
- →
Model your bill at 1x, 10x and 100x current users before signing; switching auth later means migrating password hashes.
- →
If enterprise SSO is your main cost, price per-connection and per-SSO-user models side by side for your real customer sizes.
- →
- →
Keep consumer and enterprise users in separate pools if one provider is cheap for one group and expensive for the other.
- →
Re-check pricing pages before each renewal; Clerk, for example, starts billing Directory Sync connections on January 1, 2027.
Red Flags to Watch For
-
A pricing page that shows only a starting price and hides the per-user rate at volume.
-
Automatic plan upgrades with no spending cap.
-
No documented way to export password hashes.
-
SSO or SCIM locked to an enterprise contract you cannot price in advance.
-
Counting rules that bill inactive or bot accounts as active users.
The Bottom Line
For B2B SaaS, WorkOS gives the lowest bill at every size in our scenario because user management stays free up to 1 million users and you pay only for SSO connections. For consumer-heavy apps, Supabase and Firebase cost the least per user, provided you are already on their platforms and count database usage separately. Clerk and Kinde buy speed and prebuilt UI, but re-price them before you pass 100,000 users.
Descope and Auth0 make sense when their enterprise features or contracts are the priority, not price. Compare head to head in Auth0 vs Clerk, Auth0 vs WorkOS, Clerk vs Kinde and Supabase vs Firebase, or browse Auth0 alternatives. Teams that want to host auth themselves should read our self-hosted authentication guide, and those starting at zero budget our free identity and access tools.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest authentication provider in 2026?
How much does Clerk cost at 100,000 users?
On our arithmetic, Clerk Pro costs $1,325 a month at 100,000 users with 5 SSO connections: the plan fee, $0.02 for each user from 50,001 to 100,000, and 4 extra SSO connections ($300).
How much does Auth0 cost?
Auth0 Free covers 25,000 monthly active users with 1 enterprise connection. Essentials costs $35 and Professional $240 a month at 500 MAU, and its public calculator stops at 30,000+ MAU, after which pricing is by quote.
Is there a free authentication provider for 1 million users?
WorkOS AuthKit is free for user management up to 1 million monthly active users. Enterprise SSO and Directory Sync connections are billed separately per connection.
How is enterprise SSO priced?
Does Supabase Auth cost extra on top of the database?
Auth is part of the Supabase plan: Pro includes 100,000 MAU, then $0.00325 per MAU. Database size, compute, egress and storage are billed separately and are not in our totals.
What does AWS Cognito cost by comparison?
Amazon Cognito Essentials is free for 10,000 MAU, and AWS's own example bills $0.015 per MAU above that, plus the same rate per SAML or OIDC user above 50. It is not ranked here because it is not yet in our directory.
Cite this page: Toolradar, "Authentication Provider Pricing Compared (2026)", updated October 2026, https://toolradar.com/guides/auth-provider-pricing-compared
Spotted an outdated price or a wrong fact? Suggest a correction: we check it against the vendor's own page. Work for one of these vendors? Claim your listing to update it yourself.
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