Clerk, Auth.js, and Supabase Auth — Choosing Your Provider
Comparing the most popular auth providers — pros, cons, and when to use each
You're sold on using an auth provider instead of rolling your own. Great choice. Now you need to pick one. There are several solid options, and the right choice depends on what you're building and how you like to work.
Let's compare the three most popular choices for Next.js developers.
The Three Contenders
Clerk
What it is: A complete, hosted authentication platform with pre-built UI components.
Philosophy: "We handle everything — you just drop in our components."
Clerk gives you a fully managed authentication system with beautiful, customizable UI components. You don't build login forms — you use theirs. Behind the scenes, Clerk handles user management, sessions, organizations, and more.
Key features:
- Pre-built sign-in/sign-up components (drop-in UI)
- Social
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