Authentication · decision tool
Clerk vs Supabase Auth — polish vs the cheapest managed seat
At 100K users Clerk runs ~$1,025/mo vs Supabase's ~$25 — but Clerk ships UI and orgs Supabase doesn't. Set your scale; watch the gap.
Prices verified 2026-07-15 against official pricing pages · fit weights are our estimates (see methodology) · share the URL to share your configuration
As of Jul 2026, with 5,000 monthly active users, a $50 budget for this slot, Clerk ranks first for these inputs at 96% fit and a StackSays-estimated $0/month (Supabase Auth: 94% fit, $0/month). Fit weights are our estimates; prices trace to official pages. Change any input below and the verdict recomputes.
Your situation
The verdict updates as you move these.
Toss-up — your priorities decide, not the tools
Plug-and-play auth with the best prebuilt UI; you pay for the polish as you grow
vs Supabase Auth: fit 96% against 94%, est $0 against $0 per month — genuinely close; read both risk lists below
Comparing 2 tools head-to-head. Open the full field (7 options) →
The decision, in plain words
For a solo builder at 5,000 monthly active users and a $50.00/mo budget for the auth provider slot, Clerk leads at 96% fit and $0/mo. The two rules doing the work: budget fit (Runs free at your usage — $0 vs your $50/mo budget); batteries included (Bundles prebuilt sign-in UI, organizations/teams, enterprise SSO — fewer services to glue at team size 1).
Supabase Auth is a genuine coin-flip here (94% fit, $0/mo) — read both risk lists and pick the failure mode you prefer.
Honest weak spot of the pick: hosted user store — migrating away means a coordinated export (password hashes via support).
Generated from the calculation above — every number traces to the sourced data; nothing here is written by an AI making things up.
Why Clerk scores 96%
How the $0/mo estimate is calculated
Your usage fits Clerk's free tier (50,000 monthly retained users (MRU), full features) — the estimate is $0.
What could change this verdict
Cost risk
Official prices verified 2026-07-15; calculation is deterministic code over those prices.
At a glance
| Tool | Free tier | Paid entry | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clerk | 50,000 monthly retained users (MRU), full features | Pro $25/mo | 2026-07-15 |
| Supabase Auth | 50,000 MAU on the Supabase free plan | Pro (platform) $25/mo | 2026-07-15 |
Data sources
| Tool | Source | Verified |
|---|---|---|
| Clerk | Clerk pricing page | 2026-07-15 |
| Supabase Auth | Supabase pricing page | 2026-07-15 |
A monitor re-checks these pages for changes; when a vendor moves a price, the date updates and every verdict recomputes.
People also ask
Can I use Clerk with Supabase?
Yes — official integration: Clerk issues JWTs that Supabase's row-level security verifies. You'd be paying for auth twice at scale though (Clerk per-user + Supabase platform), which is exactly the tradeoff this page's calculator prices.