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Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
KindeBetter AuthLucia
Quick read
- Free with no card: Better Auth, Lucia.
| Field | Kindekinde.com | Better Authbetter-auth.com | Lucialucia-auth.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted auth and user management with organizations, roles, feature flags and built-in subscription billing. Free to 10,500 monthly active users. Paid plans start at $25/mo with overage at $0.0175 per MAU, and Kinde takes 0.5-0.7% of volume when you bill customers through it. | Framework-agnostic TypeScript authentication library that runs inside your own app and writes to your own database. Covers email/password, social OAuth, two-factor, organizations, passkeys and API keys through a plugin system. Vercel acquired the project in July 2026; it stays MIT-licensed, self-hosted and community-governed. | No longer a library. Lucia was deprecated in March 2025 and now exists as a learning resource: a copy-paste auth_session.ts reference implementation plus The Auth Book, a free guide covering sessions, tokens and password handling. The site was last refreshed in July 2026. |
| Category | Auth & user management | Auth & user management | Auth & user management |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | free |
| Pricing | Free to 10.5k MAU · $25/mo Pro then $0.0175/MAU | Free and open source (MIT) · self-hosted, no MAU fees | Free · deprecated library, now MIT reference code and a written guide |
| Why builders pick it | One of the few auth vendors that also sells billing and entitlements, so a solo builder ships signup, plans and feature gating without wiring in a second product. | No per-MAU bill ever and no vendor holding your user table — auth becomes just another dependency. The plugin system covers most of what you would otherwise pay Clerk or Auth0 for. | Read it before choosing any vendor — it is the fastest way to genuinely understand what session auth does, and the single-file implementation is enough for small projects. |
| Watch out for | Bundling auth and billing deepens lock-in — migrating away means moving users and live subscriptions at the same time. Kinde's billing fee stacks on top of Stripe's own processing fee. | You own the hard parts: session security, email deliverability, rate limiting and breach response are all yours. Vercel's July 2026 acquisition preserves MIT licensing, but roadmap direction now sits with a hosting vendor. | Do not install the npm package for new work; it is unmaintained and will not receive security fixes. This is documentation and example code, not a supported dependency. |
| How to wire it up | npm i @kinde-oss/kinde-auth-nextjs | npm i better-auth | not logged |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Kinde vs Better Auth vs Lucia Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects. Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code. ## Kinde (kinde) - URL: https://kinde.com - Category: Auth & user management - Cost: mixed — Free to 10.5k MAU · $25/mo Pro then $0.0175/MAU - What it is: Hosted auth and user management with organizations, roles, feature flags and built-in subscription billing. Free to 10,500 monthly active users. Paid plans start at $25/mo with overage at $0.0175 per MAU, and Kinde takes 0.5-0.7% of volume when you bill customers through it. - Why builders pick it: One of the few auth vendors that also sells billing and entitlements, so a solo builder ships signup, plans and feature gating without wiring in a second product. - Trap: Bundling auth and billing deepens lock-in — migrating away means moving users and live subscriptions at the same time. Kinde's billing fee stacks on top of Stripe's own processing fee. - Wiring: npm i @kinde-oss/kinde-auth-nextjs - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/kinde ## Better Auth (better-auth) - URL: https://better-auth.com - Category: Auth & user management - Cost: free — Free and open source (MIT) · self-hosted, no MAU fees - What it is: Framework-agnostic TypeScript authentication library that runs inside your own app and writes to your own database. Covers email/password, social OAuth, two-factor, organizations, passkeys and API keys through a plugin system. Vercel acquired the project in July 2026; it stays MIT-licensed, self-hosted and community-governed. - Why builders pick it: No per-MAU bill ever and no vendor holding your user table — auth becomes just another dependency. The plugin system covers most of what you would otherwise pay Clerk or Auth0 for. - Trap: You own the hard parts: session security, email deliverability, rate limiting and breach response are all yours. Vercel's July 2026 acquisition preserves MIT licensing, but roadmap direction now sits with a hosting vendor. - Wiring: npm i better-auth - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/better-auth ## Lucia (lucia) - URL: https://lucia-auth.com - Category: Auth & user management - Cost: free — Free · deprecated library, now MIT reference code and a written guide - What it is: No longer a library. Lucia was deprecated in March 2025 and now exists as a learning resource: a copy-paste auth_session.ts reference implementation plus The Auth Book, a free guide covering sessions, tokens and password handling. The site was last refreshed in July 2026. - Why builders pick it: Read it before choosing any vendor — it is the fastest way to genuinely understand what session auth does, and the single-file implementation is enough for small projects. - Trap: Do not install the npm package for new work; it is unmaintained and will not receive security fixes. This is documentation and example code, not a supported dependency. - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/lucia ## Quick read - Free with no card: Better Auth, Lucia. ## Rules 1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is. 2. Read the full dossier before integrating. 3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.
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