Compare

Side-by-side comparison

Pick up to four tools and compare adoption, momentum and maintenance at a glance. The crown marks the leader in each row.

Formerly NextAuth.js; widely deployed OAuth/session library, now security-maintained by the Better Auth team.

Framework-agnostic TypeScript auth library with plugins for 2FA, orgs and passkeys; now stewards Auth.js.

Strategy-based authentication middleware for Express with 500+ strategies; mature but slow-moving.

Hosted auth and user management with drop-in UI components, popular in the Next.js ecosystem.

Head to head

Metric	Auth.js	Better Auth	Passport.js	Clerk
Stars	28.4k	30.6k	23.5k	n/a
Weekly downloads	9.4M	18.9M	10.2M	3.6M
Download growth	+33%	+126%	+8%	+49%
Popularity score	84/100	86/100	83/100	80/100
Forks	4k	3.1k	1.2k	n/a
Open issues	605	980	397	n/a
Last commit	3mo ago	6d ago	2y ago	n/a
Latest version	4.24.15	1.7.21	0.7.0	7.9.25
License	ISC	MIT	MIT	n/a
First released	2018	2024	2011	n/a
Signals	Legacy	Trending	None	None
Listed in	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries Security & Identity › Identity providers & SSO

Hover for exact values; switch to log scale for tools of very different sizes.

Formerly NextAuth.js; widely deployed OAuth/session library, now security-maintained by the Better Auth team.

Framework-agnostic TypeScript auth library with plugins for 2FA, orgs and passkeys; now stewards Auth.js.

Strategy-based authentication middleware for Express with 500+ strategies; mature but slow-moving.

Hosted auth and user management with drop-in UI components, popular in the Next.js ecosystem.

Metric	Auth.js	Better Auth	Passport.js	Clerk
Stars	28.4k	30.6k	23.5k	n/a
Weekly downloads	9.4M	18.9M	10.2M	3.6M
Download growth	+33%	+126%	+8%	+49%
Popularity score	84/100	86/100	83/100	80/100
Forks	4k	3.1k	1.2k	n/a
Open issues	605	980	397	n/a
Last commit	3mo ago	6d ago	2y ago	n/a
Latest version	4.24.15	1.7.21	0.7.0	7.9.25
License	ISC	MIT	MIT	n/a
First released	2018	2024	2011	n/a
Signals	Legacy	Trending	None	None
Listed in	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries	Backend › Authentication Libraries Security & Identity › Identity providers & SSO

Hover for exact values; switch to log scale for tools of very different sizes.