Clerk

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

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

• Authentication as a service
• User management platform
• Identity and access management
• Developer authentication SDK
• Multi-factor authentication

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. 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.
2. 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

Go-to-market motion4 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core 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

Named customers16 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration4 records

AI capability6 records

Feature11 records

Partnerships

16 partnerships are on record, tiered core, flagship and minor.

• Stripe Projects (Stripe CLI)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 26 March 2026Stripe 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.
• StripeflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 24 January 2024Participated 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.
• NetlifycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 12 July 2022Clerk 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.
• SupabaseflagshipTechnology or IntegrationDeep 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.
• ConvexcoreTechnology or IntegrationDocumented Convex integration allowing Clerk to authenticate Convex database queries via webhooks.
• VercelflagshipTechnology or IntegrationClerk 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.
• LovableminorGTM or Marketing PartnerJoint livestream with Lovable demonstrating Clerk user management and authentication integrations; complementary content on deploying Clerk with Supabase via Lovable.
• Cloudflare, Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — 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)flagshipTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — 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)flagshipTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — 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.coreTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — Clerk uses Datadog for application and infrastructure monitoring to debug and resolve customer issues.
• Functional Software, Inc. d/b/a SentrycoreTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — Clerk uses Sentry for application monitoring to debug and resolve customer issues.
• Svix, Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — Clerk uses Svix to provide webhook services to its customers.
• Vercel, Inc. (hosting)flagshipTechnology or IntegrationSubprocessor — Clerk uses Vercel for web hosting of various applications that process customer data.
• PostHog, Inc.coreTechnology or IntegrationAnalytics provider — Clerk uses PostHog for product analytics and session-replay on its Website; PostHog tracking governed by PostHog's privacy policy.
• VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.coreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerClerk'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

Broad 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

• Xx.com/ClerkDev
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/clerkinc

Compliance8 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds8 records

Investors12 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Clerk