Clerk
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2019
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount101–250
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
Clerk firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Clerk
- Legal name
- Clerk, Inc.
- Website
- https://clerk.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2019
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 101–250 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Clerk industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Identity and Access Management
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Privacy Management (Consent, DSAR, RoPA) (HDADAFAH)
Keywords
Where Clerk is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Clerk business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- Freemium Subscription: Self-serve free tier covering the first 50,000 monthly retained users and 100 monthly retained orgs, with paid subscription tiers billed on a recurring monthly basis. Free trials are also offered (14-day in the website demo) that auto-convert to paid subscriptions unless cancelled.
- Recurring Subscriptions: Paid subscriptions billed in advance on a recurring monthly Billing Cycle per the Order Form. Subscription Fees are non-refundable except as required by law; Company may change Fees with 60 days' prior notice.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier: first 50,000 monthly retained users and 100 monthly retained orgs |
| Subscription | Monthly | Paid Subscription (quote-based) |
Go-to-market motion4 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels10 records
Clerk product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Clerk provides a hosted authentication and user management platform delivered via drop-in React/Next.js UI components, frontend and backend SDKs, a CLI, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server. Its core offering bundles sign-up/sign-in, multi-factor authentication, ML-based bot detection, fraud prevention, session management, organization management, and subscription billing into a single developer-facing product that can be embedded in minutes and deployed to a customer's own domain.
Product overview
Clerk operates a platform-plus-modules architecture centered on its core User Authentication product, which provides drop-in UI components, session management, and ML-powered bot detection. Layered on top are add-on modules — Organizations for B2B/multi-tenant needs, Clerk Billing (integrated with Stripe Billing) for subscriptions, API Keys for end-user programmatic access, and Waitlist for pre-launch growth — together with developer tools (Clerk CLI, Clerk Init) and the Clerk MCP Server, which extends Clerk's identity layer to AI agents and LLM-powered applications under the "Clerk for the AI era" positioning.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- User Authentication Clerk's flagship core product providing drop-in authentication UI components (SignUp, SignIn, UserButton, UserProfile), session management, social login, passkeys, multi-factor authentication, and machine-learning-powered bot detection for modern web and mobile applications built on Next.js, React, Expo, TanStack, Astro, Remix, Gatsby, and Chrome Extension.
- Organizations B2B authentication module that adds multi-tenant organization structures on top of User Authentication, including roles, permissions, invites, and organization-scoped user management for SaaS applications.
- Clerk Billing Subscription and B2B billing product integrated with Stripe Billing, enabling developers to monetize authenticated users and organizations with plans, seats, and usage-based pricing.
- Clerk CLI Command-line interface for managing Clerk projects, users, organizations, and authentication sessions directly from the terminal; includes Clerk Init for project bootstrapping and native CLI authentication flows.
- Clerk MCP Server Model Context Protocol server that exposes Clerk's user and organization APIs to AI agents and LLM-powered applications, supporting Clerk's "for the AI era" identity-infrastructure positioning with consent-driven access.
- Clerk Deploy Clerk Deploy is the company's deployment product, which reached general production availability in May 2026 after moving out of preview.
Quantifiable outcome
- Free tier covers 50,000 monthly retained users and 100 monthly retained orgs
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Clerk
Customer profileNamed customers16 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Clerk technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration4 records
AI capability6 records
Feature11 records
Clerk partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
16 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.
- Stripe Projects (Stripe CLI)coreStripe Projects CLI bundles Clerk alongside Vercel, Railway, Supabase, Neon, PlanetScale, Turso, Chroma, PostHog, and RunloopAI for local production-grade app stack creation, with secure credential syncing and in-CLI upgrades to paid Clerk plans via Shared Payment Token.
- StripeflagshipParticipated as an investor in Clerk's Series B and holds a strategic partnership integrating Stripe Billing for subscription-based permissions as Clerk expands into authorization. Stripe is also Clerk's primary payments processor (subprocessor) and the Stripe Projects CLI tool includes Clerk as a default identity/authentication integration. Patrick Collison (Stripe CEO) publicly endorses Clerk.
- NetlifycoreClerk joined the Netlify Jamstack Innovation Fund to enhance its serverless, edge-compatible authentication tools for Jamstack developers. Clerk provides frontend and backend SDKs that enable rapid development of customizable authentication features on the Netlify platform.
- SupabaseflagshipDeep technology integration: Clerk's authentication can be wired to Supabase databases, with a documented integration guide. CEO Paul Copplestone is a public endorser of Clerk.
- ConvexcoreDocumented Convex integration allowing Clerk to authenticate Convex database queries via webhooks.
- VercelflagshipClerk is available on the Vercel Marketplace; Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch personally participated in Clerk's Series A. Auth-on-Vercel-preview-domains is a marquee Clerk feature.
- LovableminorJoint livestream with Lovable demonstrating Clerk user management and authentication integrations; complementary content on deploying Clerk with Supabase via Lovable.
- Cloudflare, Inc.coreSubprocessor — Clerk uses Cloudflare CDN, WAF, security and abuse prevention, and DNS services for web traffic. ISO 27001 / SOC 2 certified.
- Google LLC (Google Cloud Platform)flagshipSubprocessor — Clerk's primary Cloud Service Provider for data processing and storage. Hosts Personal Data primarily in Google Cloud data centers. Also used for Google Workspace (corporate email/file storage).
- Twilio, Inc. (Segment, SendGrid, Twilio)flagshipSubprocessor — Segment for customer data platform and analytics; SendGrid as primary email provider for verification and transactional email messages; Twilio as primary SMS provider for verification and transactional SMS messages.
- Datadog, Inc.coreSubprocessor — Clerk uses Datadog for application and infrastructure monitoring to debug and resolve customer issues.
- Functional Software, Inc. d/b/a SentrycoreSubprocessor — Clerk uses Sentry for application monitoring to debug and resolve customer issues.
- Svix, Inc.coreSubprocessor — Clerk uses Svix to provide webhook services to its customers.
- Vercel, Inc. (hosting)flagshipSubprocessor — Clerk uses Vercel for web hosting of various applications that process customer data.
- PostHog, Inc.coreAnalytics provider — Clerk uses PostHog for product analytics and session-replay on its Website; PostHog tracking governed by PostHog's privacy policy.
- VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.coreClerk's appointed EU and UK data protection representative under Article 27 of the GDPR / UK GDPR; contactable in addition to [email protected] on matters related to the processing of personal data.
Scale indicators8 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Clerk competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- AWS Cognito: AWS Cognito is the hyperscaler-scale CIAM service bundled into the AWS ecosystem, offering user pools, identity pools, and federated identity for applications hosted on AWS. It competes with Clerk on price and incumbency among AWS-native customers, though its developer experience lags Clerk's React-first approach.
- Auth0 (Okta): Auth0 (now part of Okta) is the dominant CIAM platform offering authentication, user management, SSO, and adaptive MFA for enterprise and developer customers. It competes with Clerk across the full identity stack but targets larger enterprise deals more aggressively than Clerk's developer-first PLG motion.
- Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory): Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) is the enterprise standard for SSO, identity governance, and authentication, deeply embedded in Microsoft 365 and Azure. It competes at the enterprise SSO/identity layer that Clerk's Organizations and B2B modules increasingly overlap with.
Direct peers
- Descope: Descope offers a drag-and-drop CIAM platform for developers with authentication, user management, and authorization flows. It targets the same modern application developer buyer as Clerk and competes directly in user-experience-led auth tooling.
- FusionAuth: FusionAuth is a developer-focused authentication and user management platform with both cloud and self-hosted deployment options. It overlaps with Clerk's authentication, MFA, and user management surface area, with a heavier tilt toward self-hosted/regulated deployments.
- Stytch: Stytch provides drop-in authentication APIs and SDKs with passwordless, MFA, and B2B identity, targeting modern web/JS developers. Its API-first, developer-centric positioning directly mirrors Clerk's approach, and it is consistently listed alongside Clerk in CIAM comparisons.
- WorkOS: WorkOS is a developer-focused identity platform purpose-built for B2B SaaS, offering SSO/SAML/SCIM, enterprise auth, and directory sync. It is the closest direct peer to Clerk's Organizations and B2B authentication offerings and competes for the same multi-tenant SaaS developer buyer.
Emerging players
- Frontegg: Frontegg provides an embeddable user management and authentication platform for B2B SaaS, including multi-tenancy, roles, and SSO. It overlaps with Clerk's Organizations, roles/permissions, and self-serve enterprise onboarding flows.
- SuperTokens: SuperTokens offers open-source and hosted authentication with a focus on session management, social login, and passwordless flows for web/mobile apps. It is an emerging CIAM player with partial overlap to Clerk's core auth and session management capabilities.
Others
- Keycloak (Red Hat): Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution maintained by Red Hat, providing SSO, user federation, and identity brokering. It is an adjacent ecosystem alternative for customers prioritizing self-hosting and open-source over Clerk's hosted, SaaS-delivered model.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Clerk social profiles
Digital presenceClerk compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance8 records
Clerk financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Clerk leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Clerk funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds8 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Clerk M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Clerk
What does Clerk do?
Clerk provides a hosted authentication and user management platform delivered via drop-in React/Next.js UI components, frontend and backend SDKs, a CLI, and a Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server. Its core offering bundles sign-up/sign-in, multi-factor authentication, ML-based bot detection, fraud prevention, session management, organization management, and subscription billing into a single developer-facing product that can be embedded in minutes and deployed to a customer's own domain.
Is Clerk a public or private company?
Clerk is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Clerk founded?
Clerk was founded in 2019. It employs 101 to 250 people.
Where is Clerk based?
Clerk is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Clerk make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Freemium Subscription is the primary driver. The others are recurring Subscriptions.
Who are Clerk's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are AWS Cognito, Auth0 (Okta) and Microsoft Entra ID (Azure Active Directory). Direct peers are Descope, FusionAuth, Stytch and WorkOS. Emerging players are Frontegg and SuperTokens. Keycloak (Red Hat) is listed as an others.
Does Clerk have an API?
Yes. Clerk offers a public REST API for managing users, organizations, sessions, and authentication flows programmatically. Developers can build automated user provisioning, sync authentication data with backends, and integrate Clerk into custom stacks. The company also provides a Clerk MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server, enabling AI agents and assistants to interact with Clerk's user management capabilities. SDKs are available for multiple languages including JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, Ruby, PHP, Java, .NET, and Swift. Developer documentation is at clerk.com/docs.
What industry is Clerk in?
Clerk's product category is Identity and Access Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDADAFAH, Privacy Management (Consent, DSAR, RoPA). Its NAICS code is 518 and its SIC code is 7372.