Authgear
An open-source authentication platform offering passkeys, SSO, MFA, and passwordless login, available for self-hosting or cloud.
What is Authgear?
Authgear is an open-source authentication platform that serves as an alternative to commercial services like Auth0, Clerk, and Firebase Auth. It provides a comprehensive suite of authentication features including passkeys, SSO, MFA, passwordless login, and biometric authentication, designed to be easily integrated into SaaS and mobile applications. The platform solves the problem of implementing secure, modern authentication without building from scratch, offering both self-hosted and cloud deployment options.
Developers and engineering teams building SaaS products, mobile apps, or multi-app ecosystems that require robust, scalable consumer authentication. It is particularly suited for organizations needing enterprise-grade security features like audit logs, RBAC, and SSO.
Developers choose Authgear for its extensive out-of-the-box features, beautiful and customizable pre-built UI components, and flexibility in deployment (self-hosted or cloud). Its enterprise-ready security, support for modern authentication methods like passkeys, and comprehensive management portal reduce development time while ensuring high security and user experience.
Overview
Open source Auth0/Clerk/Firebase alternative. Passkeys, SSO, MFA, passwordless, biometric login. Self-hosted or cloud. Enterprise-ready for SaaS & mobile apps
Use Cases
Best For
- Implementing passkey authentication for web and mobile apps
- Adding single sign-on (SSO) with OIDC, OAuth 2.0, or SAML to applications
- Enforcing multi-factor authentication (MFA) with TOTP, SMS, or email
- Building passwordless login flows with magic links or OTP
- Managing user authentication and authorization for SaaS platforms
- Self-hosting an authentication service to maintain data sovereignty
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring serverless authentication with zero infrastructure management
- Simple applications needing only basic email/password login without additional features
- Teams without Kubernetes or DevOps expertise for self-hosted deployment
- Real-time applications needing built-in push notifications for authentication events
Pros & Cons
Pros
Supports passkeys, biometric login, passwordless via magic-link/OTP, and traditional passwords, covering a wide range of user preferences as highlighted in the key features.
Includes audit logs, brute force protection, bot protection, rate limits, and RBAC, making it suitable for high-security environments like SaaS and enterprise applications.
Offers signup/login pages and user account settings with dark/light modes, reducing frontend development time while allowing branding customization.
Available for self-hosting with Helm charts on Kubernetes or as a managed cloud service, providing control over data and infrastructure.
Cons
Production deployment requires Kubernetes and Helm charts, which demands significant DevOps resources and expertise, as noted in the installation instructions.
The README mentions adaptive MFA is 'coming soon,' indicating a current gap in risk-based, dynamic multi-factor authentication compared to some competitors.
As a newer open-source project, it has fewer third-party integrations and community contributions than established services like Auth0, which may limit support options.
Open Source Alternative To
Authgear is an open-source alternative to the following products:
Clerk is a user authentication and management platform for web applications that provides sign-up, login, and user profile functionality.
Auth0 is a cloud-based identity and access management platform that provides authentication and authorization services for applications. It supports single sign-on, multi-factor authentication, and social login integrations.
Firebase Auth is a service within Firebase that provides authentication for apps, supporting methods like email/password, social logins, and phone authentication.
Frequently Asked Questions
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