Clerk vs Auth0 vs WorkOS (2026): What Authentication Costs at 10K, 40K and 150K Users
By Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, CEO of Visiting Media, former CMO of Mozilla and BitTorrent
Last updated November 2, 2026 · 8 min read
Choose Clerk if you are building a React or Next.js product and want sign-in and team accounts working this week: Pro costs $25 a month and includes 50,000 retained users. Choose WorkOS if you sell to companies whose IT departments will demand SAML and SCIM, because its user management is free to 1 million users and you pay only for enterprise connections, at $125 each. Choose Auth0 only when you need its depth or its Okta pedigree, since on list prices it costs roughly five to a hundred times more than the other two.
Authentication used to be a build-or-buy argument. In 2026 almost nobody builds it, and the argument has moved to which bill you can live with in year three.
The three vendors charge for different things. Clerk charges per user who comes back. Auth0 charges per active user, in steep tiers, and holds MFA back from its free plan. WorkOS gives user management away and charges per enterprise customer that connects an identity provider like Okta or Microsoft Entra ID, which means its bill tracks your sales pipeline more than your signups.
Prices come from the Clerk, Auth0 and WorkOS pricing pages, checked November 2, 2026. The monthly totals are our arithmetic for three scenarios, stated under the cost table. SaaS Versus does not sell an authentication product, and the site footer notes that some links may be affiliate links.
Clerk vs Auth0 vs WorkOS at a glance
| Feature | Clerk | Auth0 | WorkOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier | 50,000 monthly retained users per app (Hobby, no MFA) | 25,000 MAU, no MFA, 1 enterprise connection | AuthKit free to 1,000,000 MAU, MFA included |
| First paid plan | Pro: $25/month ($20 billed annually) | B2C Essentials from $35/month for 500 MAU; B2B Essentials from $150/month | No plan fee; pay per enterprise connection and add-on |
| How usage is billed | Retained users: $0.02 each from 50,001 to 100,000 | MAU tiers: B2C Essentials is $700 at 10,000 MAU, $2,800 at 40,000 | $2,500/month per extra 1M MAU above the first million |
| Enterprise SSO (SAML/OIDC) | 1 connection included on paid plans; $75/month each from 2 to 15 | B2B Essentials includes 3, Professional 5; $100/month each extra | $125/month per connection (1 to 15), $100 from 16 to 30 |
| Directory Sync (SCIM) | Not priced on the pricing page | Plan-dependent | $125/month per connection, same tiers as SSO |
| Best for | React and Next.js apps, consumer and prosumer SaaS | Okta shops and unusual login flows | B2B SaaS moving upmarket |
| Biggest drawback | Per-user cost climbs past 50,000 retained users | Expensive at every tier we priced; contact sales above 50,000 MAU on B2C | Each enterprise customer adds $125 a month, plus $99 for a custom domain |
What each provider costs in three real scenarios
| Scenario | Clerk | Auth0 | WorkOS |
|---|---|---|---|
| B2B SaaS: 10,000 users, 80 customer organizations, 5 need SAML SSO | About $425 (Pro $25 + 4 extra SSO connections at $75 + Enhanced Organizations $100) | About $2,300 (B2B Essentials at 10,000 MAU $2,100 + 2 extra connections at $100) | About $724 (5 SSO connections at $125 + custom domain $99) |
| Consumer app: 40,000 users, MFA on, no SSO | $25 (Pro; under the 50,000 MRU allowance) | $2,800 (B2C Essentials at 40,000 MAU) | $99 (custom domain only) |
| Consumer app: 150,000 users, MFA on, no SSO | About $1,925 (Pro $25 + $1,000 + $900 in retained-user fees) | Contact sales (B2C Essentials is listed only to 50,000 MAU) | $99 (custom domain only) |
Assumptions: monthly billing, one production app, and every active user counted as a Clerk retained user. That last one is generous to Auth0 and WorkOS. On a consumer app, a real share of each month’s users are first-day signups who never return, and Clerk doesn’t bill those. SMS codes are not counted (Clerk charges $0.01 per SMS in the US and Canada). Neither is WorkOS Directory Sync, which would add $125 per customer that wants SCIM provisioning.
The Auth0 column is the story. Its free plan stretches to 25,000 users, which looks generous until a customer asks for MFA, at which point a 20,000-user app goes from $0 to $1,400 a month on B2C Essentials. Founders call this the growth penalty. It is a big reason Auth0 keeps showing up in migration guides from the other two vendors.
Clerk: the fastest path for a Next.js team
Clerk is the one developers pick when they want to stop thinking about auth by Friday. You drop in prebuilt React components for sign-in, sign-up and the user menu, and its Next.js middleware protects routes without much ceremony. Organizations (Clerk’s term for team accounts) are included free for 100 monthly retained organizations with up to 20 members each, and the Enhanced add-on at $100 a month removes the member cap. Most B2B products will need it the first time a customer invites their 21st colleague.
The retained-user metric is a real advantage for anything with a free signup. A launch that brings in 30,000 curious visitors who poke around once costs nothing on Clerk.
Where Clerk gets expensive is scale with loyal users. At 150,000 retained users you are paying close to $1,925 a month, and the Business plan ($300 a month, $250 billed annually) adds compliance and support features without lowering the per-user rate. If you are not on React, the components matter less, and so does the reason to pay for them.
WorkOS: priced like a B2B sales tool
WorkOS started as an enterprise-readiness kit, SAML SSO and SCIM directory sync behind one API, and added AuthKit later as a full user management product. That history shows in the pricing. Your 400,000 free users cost nothing; your one enterprise customer on Okta costs $125 a month. Its Admin Portal lets that customer’s IT admin configure the SAML connection themselves, which saves your engineers a support call with someone at a bank who only communicates through screenshots.
The per-connection model is fair when enterprise contracts are large. A customer paying you $30,000 a year will not notice $1,500 of SSO cost. It hurts when you sell a $49-a-month team plan and want SSO on it, because the connection now costs more than the customer pays you. Clerk’s $75 hurts less. The usual fix is to put SSO on a plan priced at a few hundred dollars a month, which is why so many SaaS pricing pages do exactly that. The $99 custom domain fee is small and slightly annoying.
If you are adding SSO because a prospect’s security review asked for it, the same review will ask for your SOC 2 report. Our Vanta vs Drata vs Secureframe comparison covers that half of the deal.
Auth0: the enterprise default, at enterprise prices
Auth0 has been around since 2013 and has been part of Okta since 2021. It does the most: Actions for custom logic at points in the login flow, a large catalog of social and enterprise connections, fine-grained authorization, and the kind of track record that shortens a procurement conversation at a Fortune 500 company. B2B Professional at $800 a month for 500 users includes 5 enterprise connections and enterprise MFA.
None of that is cheap.
At 10,000 users, B2C Essentials lists at $700 a month and B2B Essentials at $2,100. Clerk charges $25 for the same users. Teams that stay on Auth0 usually do so for a reason that has nothing to do with the price page: a negotiated enterprise contract, or years of custom Actions nobody wants to rewrite. Those are good reasons. “We picked it in 2019” is not one, and switching is easier than it used to be, since all three document migration paths that include importing password hashes.
A note on hosting it yourself
If your backend is already on Supabase or Firebase, their built-in auth is cheaper than any of these and good enough for many apps; see Supabase vs Firebase before you add a third vendor.
Where each option fits (and where it does not)
| Option | Fits | Does not fit |
|---|---|---|
| Clerk | React and Next.js products, consumer and prosumer apps with free signups, and B2B products that offer SSO on mid-priced team plans | Non-React stacks, and apps with hundreds of thousands of loyal monthly users where the per-user fee adds up |
| Auth0 | Companies already on Okta, complex or regulated login flows, and enterprise buyers who want an established identity vendor on the contract | Startups paying list price, and any free consumer app that needs MFA before it has revenue |
| WorkOS | B2B SaaS selling annual contracts to mid-market and enterprise customers who require SAML and SCIM, and consumer apps with very large user counts | Low-priced team plans that need SSO for many small customers, where $125 per connection eats the margin |
Clerk: Strengths and Weaknesses
✓Pros
- ✓Prebuilt React components and Next.js middleware get auth live in a day
- ✓Bills retained users, so one-time signups are free
- ✓50,000 retained users included on every plan
- ✓Cheapest additional SSO connections of the three at $75 a month
✗Cons
- ✗Per-user fees from $0.02 above 50,000 retained users
- ✗MFA requires Pro; teams above 20 members need the $100 Organizations add-on
Auth0: Strengths and Weaknesses
✓Pros
- ✓Deepest extensibility through Actions and a large connection catalog
- ✓Okta ownership and a long enterprise track record help in procurement
- ✓Free plan covers 25,000 MAU for apps that do not need MFA
✗Cons
- ✗Most expensive in every scenario we priced
- ✗MFA unavailable on the free plan
- ✗B2C pricing goes to contact sales above 50,000 MAU
- ✗Enterprise MFA is a $100/month add-on on B2B Essentials
WorkOS: Strengths and Weaknesses
✓Pros
- ✓AuthKit free to 1 million monthly active users, MFA included
- ✓SSO and SCIM built for enterprise sales, with an Admin Portal for customer IT teams
- ✓Volume discounts down to $65 per connection at 51 to 100 connections
✗Cons
- ✗$125 per SSO or Directory Sync connection is steep for small customers
- ✗Custom domain costs $99 a month extra
The Verdict
For most startups in 2026, the choice is between Clerk and WorkOS, and the deciding question is who your customers are. If you sell to consumers or small teams on a React stack, use Clerk, at $25 a month until you pass 50,000 retained users. If you sell annual contracts to companies with an IT department, use WorkOS, because user management is free and the $125 per SSO connection is a rounding error on a five-figure deal. We would not start a new product on Auth0 at list price. It wins only when you already run Okta, need its extensibility, or negotiate a contract that brings it near the other two.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is cheapest: Clerk, Auth0 or WorkOS?
It depends on the shape of your users. On November 2026 list prices, a consumer app with 40,000 monthly users and MFA pays $25 a month on Clerk Pro, $99 on WorkOS (the custom domain fee; AuthKit itself is free to 1 million users) and $2,800 on Auth0 B2C Essentials. A B2B app with 10,000 users and five enterprise SSO customers pays about $425 on Clerk, $724 on WorkOS and $2,300 on Auth0 B2B Essentials. Auth0 is the most expensive in every scenario we priced.
Is WorkOS really free up to 1 million users?
Yes for AuthKit, its user management product: the first 1 million monthly active users are free, and each additional million costs $2,500 a month. AuthKit covers email and password, social login, passkeys, MFA and magic auth. WorkOS makes its money on enterprise features, charging $125 per SSO connection per month and the same for each Directory Sync (SCIM) connection, plus $99 a month for a custom domain.
What is a monthly retained user in Clerk pricing?
Clerk bills on monthly retained users (MRU) instead of monthly active users. A user counts only if they come back to your app in a given month at least one day after signing up, so people who sign up once and never return are not billed. All Clerk plans include 50,000 MRUs per app, then charge $0.02 each from 50,001 to 100,000 and $0.018 each up to 1 million.
How much does enterprise SSO cost on Clerk, Auth0 and WorkOS?
Clerk's paid plans include one SSO connection per app and charge $75 a month for each additional connection from 2 to 15. Auth0 B2B Essentials includes 3 enterprise connections and B2B Professional includes 5, with extras at $100 a month each up to 30. WorkOS charges $125 per connection per month for 1 to 15 connections, falling to $100 from 16 to 30 and $80 from 31 to 50.
Does the Auth0 free plan include MFA?
No. The Auth0 Free plan covers up to 25,000 monthly active users and includes one enterprise connection, but MFA is not available on it. Adding MFA means moving to a paid plan priced by MAU, and B2C Essentials at 20,000 MAU lists at $1,400 a month.
Should I use Auth0 in 2026?
Use Auth0 if your company already standardizes on Okta, needs its extensibility for unusual login flows, or has enterprise customers whose security reviews expect an established identity vendor. For a startup paying list price, Clerk or WorkOS costs a fraction as much for the same core features.
Related Comparisons
Browse every head-to-head in all SaaS comparisons, or start with these:
- Supabase vs Firebase vs Appwrite: backends that ship their own auth
- Vanta vs Drata vs Secureframe: the SOC 2 report your SSO customers will ask for next
- Vercel vs Netlify vs Cloudflare Pages: where most Clerk and Next.js apps get deployed
- 1Password vs Bitwarden vs Dashlane: password management for your own team
Get free SaaS comparison updates
Weekly insights on the best SaaS tools. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Skip the comparison work.
Get battle-tested templates and systematize your strategy with the SEO Content OS.
Get the SEO Content OS for $34 →