Auth · working at 10,000 users · rates as read 25 Sept 2026
On free tier, Clerk is $0: up to 50,000 monthly active users and Stytch is $0 / Month: 10,000 monthly active users. On cheapest paid plan, Clerk is $25/mo (Pro) and Stytch is $0 / Month (Pay as you go). On rate above what's included, Clerk is $0.02 per monthly active user, stepping to $0.015 and Stytch is $125/connection above the 5 included, $.005/fingerprint. StackTab sells neither of these and takes no referral fee on either: it scores them. Every figure was read off the named company's own page on or since 2026-09-18; the URLs and the dates are at the foot of this page, and a job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when a figure is no longer on the page it came from.
2 compared · 3 criteria, identical for every column · every competitor figure read off that company's own page · last verified 2026-09-18
| Service | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| ClerkDrop-in auth with pre-built React components and organisations.verified 25 Sept 2026clerk.com/pricing | $ | $ | $ |
| StytchAuth plus device fingerprinting and fraud tooling in the same SDK.verified 25 Sept 2026stytch.com/pricing | $ | $ | price not publishedPay as you go |
- Sorted by the total at
- Drop-in auth with pre-built React components and organisations.verified 25 Sept 2026clerk.com/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
00 Free - 10,000 users
- $
00 Free - 100,000 users
- $
1,0251,025 Pro
- Auth plus device fingerprinting and fraud tooling in the same SDK.verified 25 Sept 2026stytch.com/pricing
- 1,000 users
- $
00 Pay as you go - 10,000 users
- $
00 Pay as you go - 100,000 users
- price not publishedPay as you go
| Criterion | Clerk | Stytch |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0: up to 50,000 monthly active usersA hard cap rather than an overage: the Free plan carries a "50,000 MRU limit per app", and Clerk's own branding sits on the components. | $0 / Month: 10,000 monthly active usersAlso "Always free": unlimited organizations, 5 SSO or SCIM connections and 1,000 M2M tokens. |
| Cheapest paid plan | $25/mo (Pro)$25/mo billed monthly, $20/mo billed annually. Removes the Clerk branding. | $0 / Month (Pay as you go)Stytch publishes one plan and meters it, rather than a ladder of tiers. "No feature gating." |
| Rate above what's included | $0.02 per monthly active user, stepping to $0.015The rate steps down with volume: $0.02, then $0.018, then $0.015 each. Enhanced B2B SaaS is a $100/mo add-on on top. | $125/connection above the 5 included, $.005/fingerprintDevice fingerprinting is metered separately at $.005/fingerprint above the 10,000 included: the fraud-and-risk product rather than the auth product. |
- Free tier: what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words
- Rate above what's included: the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one
Clerk: $0: up to 50,000 monthly active users. A hard cap rather than an overage: the Free plan carries a "50,000 MRU limit per app", and Clerk's own branding sits on the components. Stytch: $0 / Month: 10,000 monthly active users. Also "Always free": unlimited organizations, 5 SSO or SCIM connections and 1,000 M2M tokens. Read from clerk.com and stytch.com on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.
Clerk: $25/mo (Pro). $25/mo billed monthly, $20/mo billed annually. Removes the Clerk branding. Stytch: $0 / Month (Pay as you go). Stytch publishes one plan and meters it, rather than a ladder of tiers. "No feature gating.". Read from clerk.com and stytch.com on 2026-09-18.
Clerk: $0.02 per monthly active user, stepping to $0.015. The rate steps down with volume: $0.02, then $0.018, then $0.015 each. Enhanced B2B SaaS is a $100/mo add-on on top. Stytch: $125/connection above the 5 included, $.005/fingerprint. Device fingerprinting is metered separately at $.005/fingerprint above the 10,000 included: the fraud-and-risk product rather than the auth product. Read from clerk.com and stytch.com on 2026-09-18. Rate above what's included here means the per-unit or per-transaction rate the vendor publishes for usage beyond the plan: the figure you need to work out a bill before you commit to one.
Clerk: You want working sign-in this afternoon and you want to know what it will cost at 100,000 users. Clerk ships the components, and it is one of the few auth vendors here whose per-user rate above the included allowance is printed as a number you can multiply out rather than hidden behind a slider. Stytch: Fraud and bot traffic are the actual problem, not sign-in. Stytch is the only provider here that ships device fingerprinting as a first-class metered product alongside authentication, with 10,000 fingerprints included, and it gates no features behind a tier.
StackTab does not sell any of these and has nothing to gain from which one you choose: it scores them. Each case below is the one that option genuinely wins.
- Clerk: You want working sign-in this afternoon and you want to know what it will cost at 100,000 users. Clerk ships the components, and it is one of the few auth vendors here whose per-user rate above the included allowance is printed as a number you can multiply out rather than hidden behind a slider.
- Stytch: Fraud and bot traffic are the actual problem, not sign-in. Stytch is the only provider here that ships device fingerprinting as a first-class metered product alongside authentication, with 10,000 fingerprints included, and it gates no features behind a tier.
Prices and limits move, and a page quoting a stale one is worth less than a page quoting none. Every source is printed here so a reader can check it against the day they are reading this, and a job re-fetches each of these URLs on a schedule and fails when a figure above no longer appears on the page it came from.
- Clerk: clerk.com/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
- Stytch: stytch.com/pricing: Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Rate above what's included. Read 2026-09-18.
Last verified 2026-09-18. https://stacktab.thecompound.tech/compare/clerk-vs-stytch