Clerk vs WorkOS

Q: Clerk vs WorkOS — free tier?

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. WorkOS: $0 — up to 1 million users. By a wide margin the largest free allowance in this table: AuthKit is free to one million users. Read from clerk.com and workos.com on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.

Q: When should I pick Clerk, and when WorkOS?

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. WorkOS — You are selling to companies and someone is going to ask for SAML. WorkOS prices the enterprise connection directly instead of pushing you into a tier that bundles it with things you do not need, and AuthKit is free to a million users, so the bill tracks the number of enterprise customers rather than the number of end users.

The same 3 criteria for both, with the page each figure came from and the day it was read.

Auth · working at 10,000 users · rates as read 26 Sept 2026

On free tier, Clerk is $0: up to 50,000 monthly active users and WorkOS is $0: up to 1 million users. On cheapest paid plan, Clerk is $25/mo (Pro) and WorkOS is $125 / ea per enterprise connection. On rate above what's included, Clerk is $0.02 per monthly active user, stepping to $0.015 and WorkOS is $2,500 / mo per additional million users. 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	$0Free	$0Free	$1,025Pro
WorkOSAuthKit free to a million users; the money is in SSO and Directory Sync.verified 25 Sept 2026workos.com/pricing	$0AuthKit	$0AuthKit	$0AuthKit

Sorted by the total at
Drop-in auth with pre-built React components and organisations.verified 25 Sept 2026clerk.com/pricing
1,000 users
$0Free
10,000 users
$0Free
100,000 users
$1,025Pro
AuthKit free to a million users; the money is in SSO and Directory Sync.verified 25 Sept 2026workos.com/pricing
1,000 users
$0AuthKit
10,000 users
$0AuthKit
100,000 users
$0AuthKit

the services a web app is billed for compared on the same 3 criteria

Every figure below was read off that company's own page; each source URL and the date it was read are listed at the foot of this page. StackTab is the publisher of this table and is not one of the 2 compared: it scores these rather than competing with them.
Criterion	Clerk	WorkOS
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: up to 1 million usersBy a wide margin the largest free allowance in this table: AuthKit is free to one million users.
Cheapest paid plan	$25/mo (Pro)$25/mo billed monthly, $20/mo billed annually. Removes the Clerk branding.	$125 / ea per enterprise connectionAuthKit itself is free; the money starts at the first SSO connection. Volume steps: 1-15 at $125 each, 16-30 at $100, 31-50 at $80, 51-100 at $65.
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.	$2,500 / mo per additional million usersThe user rate and the connection rate are separate meters, which is what makes the B2B arithmetic predictable.

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 vs WorkOS: free tier?

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. WorkOS: $0: up to 1 million users. By a wide margin the largest free allowance in this table: AuthKit is free to one million users. Read from clerk.com and workos.com on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.

Clerk vs WorkOS: cheapest paid plan?

Clerk: $25/mo (Pro). $25/mo billed monthly, $20/mo billed annually. Removes the Clerk branding. WorkOS: $125 / ea per enterprise connection. AuthKit itself is free; the money starts at the first SSO connection. Volume steps: 1-15 at $125 each, 16-30 at $100, 31-50 at $80, 51-100 at $65. Read from clerk.com and workos.com on 2026-09-18.

Clerk vs WorkOS: rate above what's included?

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. WorkOS: $2,500 / mo per additional million users. The user rate and the connection rate are separate meters, which is what makes the B2B arithmetic predictable. Read from clerk.com and workos.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.

When should I pick Clerk, and when WorkOS?

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. WorkOS: You are selling to companies and someone is going to ask for SAML. WorkOS prices the enterprise connection directly instead of pushing you into a tier that bundles it with things you do not need, and AuthKit is free to a million users, so the bill tracks the number of enterprise customers rather than the number of end users.

When each of these is the right pick

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.
WorkOS: You are selling to companies and someone is going to ask for SAML. WorkOS prices the enterprise connection directly instead of pushing you into a tier that bundles it with things you do not need, and AuthKit is free to a million users, so the bill tracks the number of enterprise customers rather than the number of end users.

Other the services a web app is billed for compared head to head9

What was checked, and whenverified 2026-09-18

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.
WorkOS: workos.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-workos

Clerk vs WorkOS

On this page8

Written comparisons2