Clerk
Auth & Identity Free tier (card may be required)
Documentation: clerk.com ยท Checked Sep 13, 2026
About
Clerk provides ready-made sign-in, sign-up, and user-profile components plus a Backend API for user management. The Hobby plan is free and, since February 2026, includes 50,000 monthly retained users, which counts users who return at least a day after signing up. It handles sessions, organizations, and social logins out of the box with polished UI components. The Backend API uses a secret key bearer token for admin tasks like listing users.
Details
Free tier, but a card may be required to sign up.
Auth: Free tier (card may be required)
Rate limit: Hobby: 50,000 monthly retained users free; Backend API has standard per-endpoint rate limits.
Verified: 2026-09-13
Best for: user login user management React apps
Setup
- Create a free Clerk account and application.
- Copy your publishable and secret API keys.
- Install the Clerk SDK for your framework.
- Add the sign-in and user-profile components to your app.
- Use the Backend API with your secret key for admin operations.
curl https://api.clerk.com/v1/users -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_test_xxx"Use cases
- Add polished login and signup UI to a React or Next.js app in minutes.
- Manage users, sessions, and organizations without a custom backend.
- Gate features by user role or organization membership.