Best WorkOS Alternatives 2026
Enterprise authentication and user management API for B2B SaaS. Find free, indie, and cheaper options that work for your team.
Want to calculate your exact savings from WorkOS?
Calculate WorkOS Savings →What is WorkOS?
WorkOS provides a developer API for adding enterprise-grade features to B2B SaaS applications, including Single Sign-On (SSO), SCIM directory sync, audit logs, and a hosted Admin Portal for customer IT teams to self-configure their connections. Core user management (AuthKit) is free up to 1 million monthly active users, but enterprise features like SSO and SCIM are billed per connection, which can add up fast once you have many enterprise customers.
Key Features
Why Look for WorkOS Alternatives?
Teams that only need basic authentication (not full enterprise SSO for many customers) often find WorkOS's per-connection pricing model overkill. As the number of enterprise customers grows, SSO/SCIM connection fees can outpace the value delivered, especially for smaller SaaS companies still finding product-market fit. Alternatives with generous free tiers or self-hosted options can cover the same ground for a fraction of the cost.
Common Pain Points
- •Per-connection pricing for SSO and SCIM scales expensively as you onboard more enterprise customers
- •Requires real engineering time to integrate correctly, not a drop-in widget
- •Hosted Admin Portal and login UI have limited deep customization
- •Support and SLAs are gated behind higher-tier plans
- •Switching later means re-mapping organizations, connections, and directory syncs
Best WorkOS Alternatives (5)
Clerk
$0
100% savings
Developer-first auth platform with prebuilt UI components, free up to 10,000 monthly active users.
Best for: Small teams wanting fast auth setup without upfront per-connection fees
Note: Enterprise SSO connections cost extra (~$100/connection/mo) similar to WorkOS at scale
Visit Clerk →Auth0
$0
100% savings
Auth0 by Okta offers a free tier up to 25,000 monthly active users with core authentication features.
Best for: Teams wanting a mature, widely-adopted identity platform
Note: Enterprise SAML/SSO features require paid Professional/Enterprise plans (starting ~$240/mo)
Visit Auth0 →Supabase Auth
$0
100% savings
Open-source backend platform with built-in auth supporting up to 50,000 monthly active users free.
Best for: Teams already using Supabase for their database and backend
Note: SSO/SAML enterprise support is more limited than WorkOS
Visit Supabase Auth →FusionAuth
$0
100% savings
Self-hosted, open-source auth server with unlimited users free under the Community edition.
Best for: Teams comfortable self-hosting and wanting no per-user or per-connection fees
Note: Free Community edition requires you to manage your own infrastructure
Visit FusionAuth →Keycloak
$0
100% savings
Fully open-source identity and access management server with SSO, SAML, and OIDC support.
Best for: Engineering teams wanting full control and zero licensing cost
Note: No managed hosting option; requires DevOps effort to run and secure
Visit Keycloak →WorkOS head-to-head
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All Security alternatives →What would you save without WorkOS?
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Tips for Switching from WorkOS
WorkOS alternatives: common questions
How do I export my user and organization data from WorkOS?+
WorkOS exposes a REST API for Users, Organizations, and SSO/Directory connections that you can script against to pull a full export in JSON. There's no one-click 'export all' button in the dashboard, so most teams write a short script hitting the /users and /organizations endpoints with pagination. Do this before disabling any connections, since directory sync configs aren't retroactively recoverable once deleted.
What do I lose if I switch away from WorkOS?+
You lose the prebuilt Admin Portal that lets enterprise customers self-configure their own SSO/SCIM without contacting your support team — most alternatives require you to build this yourself or use a less polished dashboard. You also lose WorkOS's directory sync event normalization across different identity providers, which some alternatives handle less consistently.
Is a free auth alternative actually enough for a small team?+
If you're under 10,000-25,000 monthly active users and don't yet have enterprise customers demanding SSO, tools like Clerk, Auth0, or Supabase Auth cover core authentication completely free. Once real enterprise customers require SAML/SCIM, you'll eventually hit paid tiers on any provider — the difference is how generous the free ceiling is before that happens.
Does the alternative integrate with the same identity providers WorkOS supports?+
Most modern alternatives (Auth0, FusionAuth, Keycloak, Clerk) support the standard SAML 2.0 and OIDC protocols, so they work with Okta, Azure AD, Google Workspace, and OneLogin just like WorkOS does. SCIM support varies more — Keycloak and FusionAuth support it natively, while some newer platforms have thinner SCIM implementations, so test with your actual customer's IdP first.
How does the cost compare to WorkOS over time as we grow?+
WorkOS charges per SSO/SCIM connection (roughly $125/connection/mo for SSO), so costs scale linearly with your number of enterprise customers. Self-hosted options like Keycloak or FusionAuth Community stay free regardless of customer count but shift the cost to engineering/ops time, while managed alternatives like Clerk or Auth0 have their own per-connection or per-MAU pricing tiers you should compare against your projected enterprise customer count.
Pro Tips
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