Better Auth
Better Auth provides an open-source, plugin-based authentication framework for TypeScript applications across 20+ frameworks, backed by a managed infrastructure SaaS; it is trusted by OpenAI, Databricks, and Strapi and used by a community of 873+ contributors.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2025
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Better Auth does
Better Auth Inc. is a privately held, San Francisco-based company that develops Better Auth, an open-source, plugin-based authentication framework for TypeScript applications. The framework is configured declaratively in code (so that auth "lives inside your app" rather than in a vendor-hosted dashboard), supports Bring-Your-Own-Database, and integrates with 20+ frameworks including Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, and Hono. It ships 50+ first-party plugins covering credential authentication, social sign-on, magic links, passkeys, two-factor, multi-tenancy (teams, roles, invitations), enterprise SSO/SAML 2.0 and SCIM, JWTs and API keys, security tooling (Sentinel threat detection, breached-password checks, rate limiting, geo-blocking, audit logs), payments integrations (Stripe, Polar, Autumn, Creem, Dodo, Commet, Dub), and authentication for AI agents (Model Context Protocol provider, Agent Auth Protocol). The company monetizes primarily through a managed infrastructure offering at dash.better-auth.com, with three tiers — Starter (free), Pro ($20/month) and Enterprise (custom contract) — plus usage-based overages on audit-log events, security detections, transactional email/SMS, SSO/SCIM connections, and add-on features such as custom domain and log drain.
Adoption is concentrated in the open-source distribution layer rather than paid revenue: the better-auth npm package sees 4.6M weekly downloads, the GitHub repository has 29k stars and 873+ contributors, and named adopters include OpenAI, Databricks, and Strapi. The company operates a product-led growth motion with self-serve signup on the managed dashboard and direct enterprise sales for the top tier. In June 2025 it closed a $5,000,000 funding round led by Peak XV Partners with participation from Chapter One, P1 Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Seaplane Ventures, and Y Combinator; Bereket Engida is CEO and founder. The team remains small (1-10 employees plus 5 open roles, all San Francisco-based) and is shipping a bi-weekly release cadence (v1.6.10 through v1.6.20 between May and June 2026), with a recently disclosed and patched critical CVE (CVE-2025-61928) in the API keys plugin underscoring active security response. The corporate identity is Better Auth Inc., a U.S. corporation, with no disclosed parent entity, subsidiaries, or institutional cap table beyond the 2025 round.
Better Auth firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Better Auth
- Legal name
- Better Auth Inc.
- Website
- https://better-auth.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2025
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Better Auth provides an open-source, plugin-based authentication framework for TypeScript applications across 20+ frameworks, backed by a managed infrastructure SaaS; it is trusted by OpenAI, Databricks, and Strapi and used by a community of 873+ contributors.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Better Auth industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Identity and Access Management
- NAICS
- Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA) (HDABAHAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Authentication (MFA/Passwordless/Biometrics) Platforms (BPAMAEAE), Single Sign-On (SSO) & Federation (SAML/OIDC, Identity Providers) (HDAEAJAB)
Keywords
Where Better Auth is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Better Auth business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Managed infrastructure subscriptions (Pro & Enterprise): Recurring monthly subscription for the managed Better Auth infrastructure tier (dashboard, audit logs, security detection, transactional email/SMS, SSO, directory sync). Pro is $20/month; Enterprise is custom contract.
- Usage-based overages and add-ons: Usage-based charges beyond included Pro quotas: $0.0001 per audit-log event, $0.001 per security-detection event, $0.001 per transactional email, $0.09 per SMS, $50/month per additional SSO connection, $50/month per additional directory-sync connection, $25/month custom domain add-on, $25/month log drain add-on.
- Open-source framework (free): The core Better Auth framework is free and open source; the Starter tier ($0/month) covers evaluation and side projects with 1 dashboard seat, 10,000 audit logs/month, and 1,000 security detections/month.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Starter — Free for evaluation and side projects |
| Hybrid | Monthly | Pro — $20/month for production teams |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Enterprise — Custom contract for bespoke security and volume needs |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels6 records
Better Auth product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Better Auth is the most comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript: a plugin-based, code-configured auth library that lives inside the developer's application via declarative config (e.g., betterAuth({ emailAndPassword: { enabled: true }, socialProviders: {...}, plugins: [...] })). The core framework is open source with Bring Your Own Database support and 50+ first-party plugins spanning credential auth, social sign-on, multi-tenancy, SSO/SAML/SCIM, payments, security, and AI-agent auth, with a separately priced managed infrastructure offering (Starter free, Pro $20/month, Enterprise custom) on dash.better-auth.com.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Agent Auth Protocol: Introduced as a separate product on the homepage with its own domain (agentauthprotocol.com), positioned alongside the Better Auth framework.
Products and services
- Better Auth (open-source TypeScript authentication framework) A free, open-source, plugin-based authentication framework for TypeScript that lives inside the developer's application and is configured declaratively via betterAuth({...}). Supports Bring Your Own Database, 20+ frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, Hono, and more), 50+ first-party plugins covering credential auth, social sign-on, multi-tenancy, SSO/SAML/SCIM, payments, security, and AI-agent auth (MCP, token exchange, agent delegation). For developers and engineering teams building TypeScript web applications.
- Better Auth Managed Infrastructure (Starter, Pro, Enterprise) A paid managed infrastructure and dashboard service for self-hosted Better Auth deployments, offered at dash.better-auth.com. Includes a hosted dashboard for users, organizations, and events; auto-captured audit logs with configurable retention and SIEM log drain; Sentinel real-time threat detection (bot detection, brute force protection, breached passwords via HIBP, impossible travel, rate limiting, geo blocking, suspicious IPs, disposable email, email abuse, free-trial abuse); self-service SSO, SCIM provisioning, and directory sync; transactional email and SMS; Dashboard RBAC; and custom domain. Tiered as Starter (free, 1 dashboard seat, 10k audit logs/month, 1k detections/month), Pro ($20/month, unlimited seats, 20k audit logs/month then $0.0001/event, 10k detections/month then $0.001/event, 1 SSO connection then $50/month/connection, 1 directory sync then $50/month/connection, transactional email/SMS), and Enterprise (custom pricing, custom usage and retention, custom domain and log drain included, Dashboard RBAC, Slack support, implementation help, custom MSA and DPA). For production teams and enterprises that want a managed dashboard, audit, security detection, and enterprise features on top of the open-source framework.
- Agent Auth Protocol A companion protocol introduced on the Better Auth homepage at agentauthprotocol.com that provides discovery, registration, and capability-based authorization for AI agents. Pairs with Better Auth's MCP auth plugin, token exchange, and agent delegation features to enable AI agents to authenticate, register capabilities, and act on behalf of users across relying parties. For developers building AI-agent-driven applications and the teams that need to authenticate them.
Quantifiable outcome
- 4.6M weekly npm downloads and 29k GitHub stars indicating massive developer adoption
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Better Auth
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Better Auth technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration14 records
AI capability5 records
Feature6 records
Better Auth partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eleven partnerships are on record, tiered flagship / featured partner, major integration, mid-tier integration, flagship integration and major framework integration.
- Agent Auth Protocolflagship / featured partnerFeatured at the top of the better-auth.com homepage with a dedicated "Introducing | Agent Auth Protocol" banner linking to agentauthprotocol.com. Better Auth also ships an "Agent Auth" plugin (new) for discovery, registration, and capability-based authorization for AI agents, indicating deep co-development around agentic auth.
- Stripemajor integrationBetter Auth ships a first-party Stripe plugin for subscription and payment management, exposing Better Auth users/sessions to Stripe billing flows.
- Polarmajor integrationBetter Auth ships a Polar plugin for payments and checkouts integrated with Better Auth users and organizations.
- Autumn Billingmid-tier integrationBetter Auth ships an Autumn Billing plugin for billing integration.
- Creemmid-tier integrationBetter Auth ships a Creem plugin for payments and subscriptions.
- Dodo Paymentsmid-tier integrationBetter Auth ships a Dodo Payments plugin for payments integration.
- Commetmid-tier integrationBetter Auth ships a Commet plugin for billing, subscriptions, and usage-based pricing.
- Dubmid-tier integrationBetter Auth ships a Dub plugin for lead tracking using Dub links and OAuth linking.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP)flagship integrationBetter Auth provides an MCP provider authentication plugin, enabling MCP servers to act as OAuth/OIDC providers and to authenticate agents via Better Auth.
- Next.jsmajor framework integrationListed as a supported framework on the homepage alongside Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, Hono, and 20+ more.
- Honomajor framework integrationListed as a supported framework on the homepage alongside Next.js, Nuxt, SvelteKit, Astro, and 20+ more.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Better Auth competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Clerk: Clerk offers a hosted developer-focused authentication and user-management platform for modern web apps with extensive framework support (Next.js, Remix, etc.). It competes directly with Better Auth's managed Pro/Enterprise infrastructure, though Clerk is SaaS-hosted rather than self-hostable.
- Auth.js (NextAuth): Auth.js (formerly NextAuth.js) is the most widely deployed open-source authentication library for Next.js and other JavaScript frameworks. It is the closest OSS competitor to Better Auth's code-first, plugin-based, framework-agnostic framework for TypeScript.
- Supabase Auth: Supabase bundles authentication as part of its Postgres-based developer platform, supporting email/password, OAuth, magic links, SSO, and Row-Level Security. It competes with Better Auth for the same developer persona and is often the default choice for new TypeScript applications.
- WorkOS: WorkOS provides enterprise authentication features (SSO/SAML, SCIM, directory sync, audit logs) targeted at B2B SaaS companies. It overlaps directly with Better Auth's Organization, SSO, SCIM, SAML 2.0, and Enterprise tiers, with a more enterprise GTM motion.
- Stytch: Stytch offers passwordless, OAuth, MFA, and SSO authentication APIs for developers and enterprises. It targets the same drop-in auth use case as Better Auth with a hosted API model, including enterprise SSO/SCIM features.
- Ory: Ory provides open-source identity infrastructure (Ory Kratos, Hydra, Oathkeeper, Keto) for authentication, authorization, and zero-trust networking. It is a direct open-core competitor to Better Auth with self-hosting and a managed cloud offering.
- Keycloak: Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management solution from the CNCF supporting SSO, SAML, OIDC, and user federation. It competes with Better Auth for self-hostable enterprise IAM, with a Java-based rather than TypeScript-first orientation.
Broad incumbents
- Auth0 (Okta): Auth0 is the incumbent identity platform serving thousands of enterprise customers with SSO, MFA, and user management. As part of Okta, it competes broadly with Better Auth's enterprise tier but lacks a self-hostable, code-first TypeScript framework model.
- Firebase Authentication: Firebase Auth is Google's hosted authentication service for email/password, phone, and federated identity providers. It is a broad incumbent offering overlapping with Better Auth's credential and social sign-on plugins, especially for mobile and web apps on GCP.
Emerging players
- Descope: Descope is a drag-and-drop authentication and user management platform for developers, offering passwordless, MFA, SSO, and SCIM as APIs. It is a newer entrant overlapping with Better Auth's full-stack auth feature set, particularly for B2B SaaS use cases.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Better Auth social profiles
Digital presenceBetter Auth compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Better Auth financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Better Auth leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Better Auth funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors7 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Better Auth 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 Better Auth
What does Better Auth do?
Better Auth is the most comprehensive authentication framework for TypeScript: a plugin-based, code-configured auth library that lives inside the developer's application via declarative config (e.g., betterAuth({ emailAndPassword: { enabled: true }, socialProviders: {...}, plugins: [...] })). The core framework is open source with Bring Your Own Database support and 50+ first-party plugins spanning credential auth, social sign-on, multi-tenancy, SSO/SAML/SCIM, payments, security, and AI-agent auth, with a separately priced managed infrastructure offering (Starter free, Pro $20/month, Enterprise custom) on dash.better-auth.com.
Is Better Auth a public or private company?
Better Auth is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Better Auth founded?
Better Auth was founded in 2025. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Better Auth based?
Better Auth is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does Better Auth make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Managed infrastructure subscriptions (Pro & Enterprise) is the primary driver. The others are usage-based overages and add-ons and open-source framework (free).
Who are Better Auth's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Clerk, Auth.js (NextAuth), Supabase Auth, WorkOS, Stytch, Ory and Keycloak. Broad incumbents are Auth0 (Okta) and Firebase Authentication. Descope is listed as an emerging player.
Does Better Auth have an API?
Yes. Better Auth exposes a public-facing developer API/framework for building authentication into TypeScript applications. Developers can build sessions, social sign-on, multi-tenancy, SSO, SCIM, API keys, JWTs, OAuth provider/OIDC, and auth for AI agents. The package is available via npx auth init / npm ('better-auth') and is installed into the developer's application. OpenAPI reference generation is supported via the 'open-api' plugin, and an MCP plugin provides Model Context Protocol provider authentication. Developer documentation is at better-auth.com/docs.
What industry is Better Auth in?
Better Auth's product category is Identity and Access Management. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDABAHAF, Cloud Identity & Access Management Infrastructure (IAM/IdP/MFA), with a secondary code of BPAMAEAE, Authentication (MFA/Passwordless/Biometrics) Platforms. Its NAICS code is 541511 and its SIC code is 7372.