When should I pick Clerk over Supabase?

Pick Clerk if: You're on Next.js or React and want sign-in, profiles and teams working today.

When should I pick Supabase over Clerk?

Pick Supabase if: Your data is already in Supabase or Firebase.

Which is cheaper, Clerk or Supabase?

At monthly active users 10k MAU: Clerk $0/mo (Hobby), Supabase $0/mo (Free), at list prices.

Which do more makers use for authentication?

Among makers' products we track: Clerk 307, Supabase 13.

Are people switching from Clerk to Supabase?

Public GitHub pull requests since 2024-10-02: 53 from Clerk to Supabase, 54 from Supabase to Clerk.

Clerk vs Supabase for authentication: which fits you

Which fits you

Choose Clerk if

You're on Next.js or React and want sign-in, profiles and teams working today

Use it whenYou want prebuilt components, user profiles and organizations out of the box.

Trade-offPer-user pricing grows with you; users live in Clerk, not your database.

Choose Supabase if

Your data is already in Supabase or Firebase

Use it whenYou want row-level security in Postgres tied directly to the signed-in user.

Trade-offLess polished UI components than dedicated auth services.

At a glance

	Clerk	Supabase
Used by	307 makers' products · 11 open-source projects	13 makers' products
Cost at default usagemonthly active users 10k MAU	$0/mo Hobby	$0/mo Free
Moved to it on GitHubpull requests since Oct 2024	54 from Supabase	53 from Clerk
Downloads	2.1M/wk+50% vs npm	25.4M/wk+96% vs npm
Pricing	Free tier by monthly active users; paid plans add features and seats. · paid from $25/mo	Free tier (inactive projects pause); paid plans per project plus usage. · paid from $25/mo
Free tier	Yes	Yes
Open source	No	Yes · self-hostable
Incidents, 90 daysfrom its status page	13 (1 major)	50+ (16 major)

Cost as you grow

Both cost $0 up to 50k MAU; from 100k MAU Supabase costs less ($25 vs $1,025); and still does at 1M MAU ($2,950 vs $17,225). They're different kinds of tool — hosted service and bundled with your backend — so the prices don't buy the same thing.

Supabase Clerkx: monthly active users (MAU) · cheapest usable plan at each point, list prices · try your own numbers

The numbers, plan by plan

Monthly active users	Clerk	Supabase
100	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
1,000	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
5,000	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
10,000	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
25,000	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
50,000	$0 Hobby	$0 Free
100,000	$1,025 Pro	$25 Pro
250,000	$3,725 Pro	$513 Pro
1,000,000	$17,225 Pro	$2,950 Pro

From each vendor's pricing page: Clerk, Supabase.

Who moves from one to the other

Public pull requests on GitHub since Oct 2024 whose title says "Clerk to Supabase" or the reverse — real code changes, by developers in general rather than makers only.

Supabase →

Clerk54 PRs

Migrate SpendWise from Supabase to Neon and Clerkderlinromero/SpendWise · 2026-09-28
feat: migrate authentication from Supabase Auth to Clerkfreathedge/operationshub · 2026-09-25
Migrate Supabase Auth to Clerk AuthenticationArxov/farmer-procurement · 2026-09-19
Switch auth from Supabase to Clerkjefebcn/hyroxsetup · 2026-09-10
Migrate authentication from Supabase to Clerk with email OTPzarintasnimfema7/Campus_Path · 2026-09-03
Migrate authentication from Supabase to Clerk with email OTPzarintasnimfema7/Campus_Path · 2026-09-03
Migrate web auth from Supabase Auth to Clerk (keep Supabase DB)noahpeden/halteres.ai · 2026-08-30
Migrate authentication from Supabase to ClerkSchroederNathan/Medley · 2026-08-07
feat: migrate auth from Supabase Auth to Clerkvidhyaranganathan/myedbc-course-explorer · 2026-07-30
Migrate authentication from Supabase Auth to Clerk (Phases 1-5)azhar-zuberi/digital-hangar-mobile · 2026-07-29

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

Clerk →

Supabase53 PRs

Migrate customer web auth from Clerk to Supabaseevery1hatestaha-png/busniessOS · 2026-09-27
Connect Clerk users to Supabase profileshimavolt3569-design/goreto · 2026-09-25
Migrate from Clerk to Supabase AuthDRG-X/Vaulto · 2026-09-20
Connect Clerk to Supabase via third-party auth and link profilesAadvait-Hirde/KTP-Indiana · 2026-09-09
feat: migrate from Clerk+NeoDB to Supabase Auth+DBcrewcircle/crewRoster · 2026-07-23
Migrate portal authentication from Clerk to Supabase Authtoddkidneyjourney1/lab-test · 2026-07-06
Migrate auth from Clerk to native Supabase Authjonasbager/applicator-hub · 2026-06-18
Migrate from Clerk to Supabase AuthMasterSoler/mcp-chat · 2026-06-11
SCRUM-21 Sync Clerk Users to Supabase DatabaseAAK-Developers/centraleats-backend · 2026-06-08
test(e2e): migrate auth mock from Clerk to Supabase AuthBonham-Technologies/ESCAPESUITE · 2026-06-08

All matching pull requests on GitHub ↗

What makers say

Makers on using it for authentication, from Product Hunt and Starter Story interviews, each linked to the source. Products with a page of their own and fuller notes first.

On Clerk

The team loves Clerk for its intuitive interface, seamless integration, and efficient management of administrative tasks, allowing them to focus on building groundbreaking solutions.

Garple, the makerSep 2026 ↗

We used Clerk for account management. Building an authentication infrastructure from scratch is challenging, but by using Clerk’s abstracted API, we were able to simplify this process.

Hanabi.rest, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Nobody wants to worry about authentication or build their own system. Clerk allowed me to simply integrate them into my project and immediately feel confident in the security of my site.

Trade Trender, the makerSep 2026 ↗

72 more on the Clerk page →

On Supabase

Our real-time database and auth backbone. Supabase’s hosted PostgreSQL and Edge Functions give us version control, user management, and lightning-fast reads/writes out of the box.

Snapdeck, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Supabase is CatDoes' backend. We use their database, auth, storage, and real-time features. A platform like CatDoes requires a stable and scalable backend, and Supabase is providing that!

CatDoes, the makerSep 2026 ↗

Supabase makes backend work a breeze with instant APIs and real-time sync. We skip building auth and complex DB setups, letting us launch features faster and focus on what really matters.

Lamatic.ai, the makerSep 2026 ↗

10 more on the Supabase page →

Loved and watch-outs

Themes that recur in makers' words and Hacker News comments, each linked to what it summarises.

Clerk

Most loved

Sign-up, sign-in, sessions and social login get wired in an afternoon instead of a sprint. PH PH 2
Organizations, roles and billing come built in, covering multi-tenant B2B apps without custom identity work. PH PH 2
Prebuilt UI components, including profile and settings pages, look polished out of the box. PH

Watch-outs

Outsourcing auth means a Clerk outage or account problem locks your users out, and the dependency is hard to reverse. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Costs climb with SSO, MFA, passkeys and branding removal, and some switched to cheaper open-source options. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4

On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 112 reviews · mentioned most: easy integration, comprehensive solution, free tier

Supabase

Most loved

One project covers Postgres, auth, storage and realtime, so a solo founder ships without stitching vendors or hiring a backend team. PH PH 2 PH 3 PH 4
It is real Postgres with SQL, row-level security and pgvector rather than a proprietary store. PH PH 2 PH 3 PH 4
Open source and self-hostable, which reduces vendor lock-in. PH PH 2 HN PH 3

Watch-outs

Row-level security policies are hard to get right, so many apps end up exposing data publicly. HN HN 2 HN 3 HN 4
Reliability has been shaky for some, and it is not really built for self-hosting in practice. HN
Per-project billing adds up for developers running many small side projects. HN

On Product Hunt: 5.0★, 899 reviews · mentioned most: authentication features, easy setup, PostgreSQL integration · complaints: documentation gaps