Clerk vs Descope
Clerk
clerk.com
Descope
descope.comSide by side
| Figure | Clerk | Descope |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $1.67/mo | $249/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 4 |
| Spec score · Biometric Authentication Software | 8.6 (#4) | 8.6 (#5) |
| Spec score · Identity and Access Management Software | 8.6 (#7) | 8.6 (#8) |
| Spec score · Authentication Software | 8.5 (#5) | 8.5 (#6) |
| Spec score · Passkey Authentication Software | 8.5 (#12) | 8.6 (#10) |
| Spec score · Passwordless Authentication Software | 8.5 (#8) | 8.5 (#9) |
| Integrations | Clerk documents integrations with Convex, Firebase, Supabase, Shopify, Vercel Marketplace, and Google Analytics. | Descope documents more than 50 third-party connectors for CRM, identity verification, fraud prevention and audit use cases. |
| Product | Clerk provides full-stack authentication and user management, including Organizations and Billing. | Descope is a customer and agentic identity platform for authentication, user management, authorization and identity journeys. |
| Support | Business includes priority support, while Enterprise includes a premium support SLA and dedicated Slack channel. | The Free Forever plan includes community support and a 99% SLA; Pro includes web and email support and a 99.99% SLA; Growth includes a 99.99% SLA. |
Plans
Descope
- Free ForeverFree
- Pro$249 a month
- Growth$799 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Clerk
Clerk provides full-stack authentication and user management for applications, including Organizations and Billing. Prebuilt components cover sign-up, sign-in, and user profiles, while Frontend, Backend, and Platform HTTP APIs support client-side, backend, and workspace operations. Clerk Billing handles subscription billing and charges 0.7% of billing volume in addition to Stripe fees. Its free B2B offering includes 100 monthly retained organizations per app and up to 20 members per Organization. Listed integrations include Convex, Firebase, Supabase, Shopify, Vercel Marketplace, and Google Analytics. Security practices include account lockout, bot protection, rate limiting, breached-password detection, and MFA enforcement. Clerk lists SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA certifications; SOC 2 reports are available on Business and above, while a HIPAA BAA is available on Enterprise. Data is hosted on US infrastructure, with no regional data residency. Clerk is available on Android, iOS, web, APIs, and extensions, and provides an iOS SDK for native Apple apps. Hobby is free; Pro costs $20/mo billed annually, and Business costs $250 per year billed annually.
Descope
Descope is a customer and agentic identity platform for authentication, user management, authorization and identity journeys. Developers can use Descope Flows to build login screens and authentication journeys visually, without writing code. Authentication options include magic links, passkeys, social login, one-time passwords, SSO, biometrics, MFA, authenticator apps and passwords. The platform provides client, mobile and backend SDKs, plus REST APIs for custom implementations; Descope says its SDKs are open source. Listed framework and language integrations include React, Next.js, Vue.js, JavaScript, Angular, Python, Node.js, Java,.NET, Go, PHP, Ruby, Kotlin, Swift, React Native and Flutter. Native mobile SDKs support Swift iOS, Kotlin Android, Flutter and React Native apps. Descope documents more than 50 third-party connectors for CRM, identity verification, fraud prevention and audit use cases. The Free Forever plan costs nothing and includes 7,500 MAUs, 10 monthly active tenants and 3 SSO connections. Pro costs $249 a month, billed annually; Growth costs $799 a month, billed annually.