Where Kinde's free tier stops
Kinde Kinde's free tier stops at 10,500 monthly active users and 5 monthly active organizations. It also limits several supporting pieces that matter once a SaaS starts to grow: 2 custom roles, 10 permissions, 10 feature flags, 5 custom properties, 1 webhook, 2 environments, and 2,000 M2M tokens. You do get unlimited dashboard seats and applications, plus billing APIs, portal flows, and auth features, but the plan is still clearly bounded on the usage and configuration axes that tend to break first.
Switch table
| Kinde | Auth0 | Logto | Clerk | Phase Two | WorkOS | MojoAuth | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| monthly active users | 10,500 monthly active users | Up to 25,000 monthly active users | Up to 50,000 monthly active users | 50,000 monthly retained users per app | Up to 15K monthly active users during Starter trial | Up to 1 million monthly active users for WorkOS User Management | 25,000 MAUs included |
| monthly active organizations or tenants | 5 monthly active organizations | 5 organizations | 1 tenant member, org count not stated | Up to 20 members per organization | Not stated | Not stated | Unlimited total users |
| machine-to-machine tokens or app limits | 2,000 M2M tokens | Not stated | 50,000 tokens per month, 1 M2M app | Machine Authentication with monthly limits | Unlimited SSO connections | Not stated | Not stated |
| webhooks | 1 billing webhook, 1 webhook per environment | Not stated | 1 webhook | Webhooks for data sync | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| feature flags or custom properties | 10 feature flags, 5 custom properties | Not stated | Not stated | User metadata storage, custom session tokens, custom JWT templates | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| audit log retention | 1 day of audit logs | Not stated | 3 days of audit logs | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Card required | - | Yes | No | No | Yes | Unknown | No |
| First paid tier | - | Essentials at $35/month | Pro at $24/mo | Pro at $20 per month, billed annually | Starter at $149/month | AuthKit at $0 / month | Business Pro Plan at $50/month |
The alternatives
Auth0
FTV 58 / 100Auth0's free tier includes up to 25,000 monthly active users, 1 custom domain, 5 organizations, 1 enterprise connection, self-service SSO, SCIM, passwordless authentication, unlimited social connections, brand customization, and basic attack protection. It is a fit for teams that mainly need hosted auth and want more headroom on users than Kinde offers. The big advantage is the MAU ceiling, which is higher than Kinde's. It falls short on Kinde's broader product surface, since Kinde also includes billing and subscription management pieces that Auth0 does not cover in its free tier. Switch if user growth is the immediate constraint and you can handle identity only.
- Beats Kinde: Higher monthly active user ceiling
- Falls short: No free billing and subscription management surface
- Who should switch: Switch if your app is growing past Kinde's MAU cap and you only need identity, not billing flows.
Logto
FTV 60 / 100Logto's free tier gives up to 50,000 monthly active users, 50,000 tokens per month, 3 total applications, 1 machine-to-machine app, 3 social connectors, 1 custom domain, 1 webhook, audit logs for 3 days, and 1 tenant member for console access. It is a good option for developers who want more headroom on MAUs and token volume than Kinde's free tier. It falls short on Kinde's organization and billing breadth, since Kinde includes billing APIs, customer portal flows, and plan-change workflows in the free tier. Switch to Logto if the main pressure is auth scale rather than subscription management.
- Beats Kinde: Higher MAU and token limits
- Falls short: Less billing and subscription management capability
- Who should switch: Switch if you need more free auth volume and can live without Kinde-style billing tools.
Clerk
FTV 62 / 100Clerk's free tier includes up to 3 dashboard seats, unlimited applications, 50,000 monthly retained users per app, up to 5 user impersonations, APIs and prebuilt UIs for sign-up, sign-in, and user profile, custom domain support, a fixed 7-day session lifetime, machine authentication with monthly limits, up to 3 social connections, webhooks for data sync, custom session tokens, custom JWT templates, and B2B add-ons with modest caps. It is strong if you want a polished app-auth stack with generous per-app user room. It falls short of Kinde on billing and subscription management, because Kinde includes those pieces natively in the free tier. Switch if you want a close developer-auth workflow with more retained users per app.
- Beats Kinde: Higher retained users per app
- Falls short: No native billing and subscription management
- Who should switch: Switch if your priority is app authentication and user management, not subscription billing.
Phase Two
FTV 49 / 100Phase Two's free offer is a 30-day Starter trial with up to 15K monthly active users, 1 custom domain, unlimited SSO connections, and email support. It is useful for teams evaluating hosted Keycloak with SSO-heavy requirements and a dedicated-cluster model. The main advantage over Kinde is the SSO allowance, which is unlimited during the trial. It falls short on duration, because it is only a trial, while Kinde's free tier is perpetual. It also does not offer Kinde's billing APIs or subscription management free features. Switch if you need to validate Keycloak hosting and enterprise SSO quickly.
- Beats Kinde: Unlimited SSO connections during the trial
- Falls short: Trial-only access instead of a perpetual free tier
- Who should switch: Switch if you are evaluating managed Keycloak and SSO is the main concern.
WorkOS
FTV 83 / 100WorkOS gives up to 1 million monthly active users for WorkOS User Management, first 1,000 Radar checks per month, and free staging access to all WorkOS products for testing integrations, with no credit card required until production. It is the largest free usage envelope in this set by a wide margin, especially for user management. It falls short on Kinde's always-free production breadth, since much of WorkOS is staging-limited or product-specific rather than a broad free platform for live billing and access management. Switch if your immediate need is room to grow far beyond Kinde's MAU cap before paying.
- Beats Kinde: Much higher free MAU headroom
- Falls short: Less of the free tier is production-oriented
- Who should switch: Switch if you want the most free headroom before you have to commit to paid usage.
MojoAuth
FTV 65 / 100MojoAuth's free tier includes 25,000 MAUs, unlimited total users, email OTP, magic link, Facebook and Google login, basic attack protection, and hosted login and registration pages. It is a practical pick for teams focused on passwordless and social login flows. Its clearest advantage over Kinde is the higher MAU allowance, with unlimited total users also reducing some planning friction. It falls short on Kinde's broader SaaS platform scope, especially billing APIs, portal flows, feature flags, and subscription management. Switch if your auth stack is simple and passwordless-first.
- Beats Kinde: Higher MAU allowance with unlimited total users
- Falls short: No built-in billing and subscription management
- Who should switch: Switch if you want simpler auth with more free user room and do not need billing workflows.
Two quick picks
Clerk
Clerk is the closest drop-in for teams that want hosted sign-up, sign-in, user management, custom domains, webhooks, and organization features without changing the basic developer workflow much. It feels closest to Kinde's general app-auth surface while giving more retained users per app.
WorkOS
WorkOS gives the most free headroom by far, with up to 1 million monthly active users before charging. If your main concern is delaying a paid plan as long as possible, it has the largest ceiling in this set.
Frequently asked questions
Which alternative gives the most free monthly active users?
WorkOS, with up to 1 million monthly active users for WorkOS User Management.
Which alternative is closest if I need hosted auth with minimal migration work?
Clerk is the closest fit for teams that want hosted sign-up, sign-in, user profiles, custom domains, and webhooks in a similar developer-oriented setup.
Which alternative is strongest for SSO-heavy use cases?
Phase Two is the most direct fit if you want unlimited SSO connections during the trial and a managed Keycloak model.
Which alternative stays free without requiring a card?
Logto, Clerk, and MojoAuth explicitly say no card is required. For WorkOS, the free tier says no credit card is required until ready to move to production.
Bottom line
For most builders leaving Kinde because the free tier runs out on MAUs or supporting limits, Clerk is the best first alternative. It keeps the developer-auth workflow familiar, includes hosted auth UI, custom domains, webhooks, organization features, and more retained users per app than Kinde's free tier. If the only issue is user volume, WorkOS is the stronger headroom choice, but Clerk is the better common-case replacement when you want the least disruption while still getting more free room.
Read the full listing for Kinde. Scores use the FTV methodology at /ftv. Browse more alternatives on /alternatives, or head-to-head comparisons on /compare.