Alternatives to Kinde
Auth, billing, and access management for SaaS with usage-based free tier
Kinde ranks #12 of 12 in Authentication & identity providers, with an Alt Score of 74. It is proprietary, freemium from $25/mo and available on the web. 12 of 12 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Kinde is an authentication-as-a-service platform aimed at early-stage and growing SaaS companies, bundling social login, passwordless, MFA, RBAC, and multi-tenant org support with pre-built UI components and integrated billing. It's positioned as a lower-cost, faster-to-integrate alternative for startups compared to enterprise-oriented CIAM vendors. It differentiates on price-to-feature ratio and a free tier generous enough for early production use.
Kinde is aimed at developers and founders building SaaS products who need authentication, user management, and billing without assembling separate vendors. Its plans span from hobbyist/personal projects on the free tier up to enterprise B2B businesses that need SAML SSO, multi-tenant organizations, and dedicated infrastructure.
The platform provides social login, OTP-based passwordless sign-in, passkeys/WebAuthn (paid plans), MFA, enterprise SAML connections, role-based access control, multi-tenant organizations, customizable hosted auth pages (the Kinde widget), and integrated subscription billing. All plans include a free tier of 10,500 monthly active users.
Kinde runs as a hosted, multi-tenant service (single database with a per-tenant schema) that developers integrate via SDKs for web and native platforms or directly against its APIs. User sign-in flows are served from Kinde-hosted pages that can be restyled with CSS or replaced with custom HTML/CSS/JS synced from a connected GitHub repo, while roles, permissions, and organization membership are managed through the Kinde dashboard or Management API and surfaced to applications via JWT claims.
Why people leave Kinde
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
FusionAuth is a developer-focused authentication and user management platform that can be self-hosted for free (Community Edition) or run as a managed cloud service.
Ory is an open-source identity platform composed of modular services — Kratos for identity/authentication, Hydra for OAuth2/OIDC, and Keto for permissions — that can be self-hosted or consumed as a ma.
Zitadel is an open-source identity and access management platform, written in Go, offering OIDC/OAuth2/SAML, MFA, passwordless, and a native multi-tenant 'organizations' concept designed for SaaS prod.
Auth0 (an Okta company) is a developer-focused identity platform providing authentication, authorization, social and enterprise SSO, MFA, and user management via drop-in SDKs and a hosted login, for w.
Clerk is a developer-first authentication and user-management platform with pre-built React/Next.js UI components, social and passwordless login, passkeys, MFA, and B2B organizations, designed to add.
Frontegg is a B2B-focused identity platform that bundles authentication, tenant/org management, roles and entitlements, and a pre-built admin portal for end customers.
Stytch is a developer platform for authentication and fraud prevention, offering passwordless and passkey login, social and enterprise SSO, B2B multi-tenant auth, and device fingerprinting through API.
Descope is a customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform that lets developers build authentication journeys (social login, passwordless, MFA, passkeys) with a visual no-code/low-code flow.
WorkOS is a platform of enterprise-readiness APIs — SAML/OIDC single sign-on, SCIM directory sync, audit logs, and its AuthKit user management — that lets B2B SaaS apps add the features enterprise cus.
Keycloak is an open-source identity and access management server (a CNCF project) offering single sign-on, social and enterprise SSO, user federation, MFA, and fine-grained authorization, self-hosted.
Amazon Cognito is AWS's managed customer identity and access management service, providing user pools for sign-up/sign-in, social and enterprise SSO federation, MFA, and native passkey support, plus f.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Authentication & identity providers checklist (16 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Authentication & identity providers checklist | Kinde | FusionAuth | Ory | Zitadel | Auth0 | Clerk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Social login | ||||||
| Passwordless / magic links | ||||||
| Passkeys / WebAuthn | ||||||
| MFA | ||||||
| Enterprise SSO (SAML / OIDC) | ||||||
| SCIM provisioning | ||||||
| B2B org / multi-tenant | ||||||
| Self-hostable | ||||||
| Pre-built UI components | ||||||
| RBAC / permissions | ||||||
| Open source | ||||||
| Generous free tier (MAUs) |
Every fact and feature listed for Kinde is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Starts at $25/mo verified 2026-07-30
Cheapest paid tier is Pro at $25/month base. Paid plans also add a per-customer transaction fee (0.7% on Pro, scaling down to 0.5% on Scale) on top of the base price.
Upgrade when you want, cancel anytime. $25 USD per month
https://kinde.com/pricing/ -
Platforms Web verified 2026-07-30
Kinde is a hosted web platform (admin dashboard + hosted auth pages). It also ships native SDKs (iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter) for embedding auth into mobile apps, but these are client integrat
The quickest way to see an end-to-end example of custom HTML/CSS and JS running on Kinde hosted pages is to follow this guide.
https://docs.kinde.com/design/customize-with-code/quick-start-guide/ -
Pricing model Freemium verified 2026-07-30
Every plan includes a free tier of 10,500 monthly active users (MAU), with paid features and usage billed as you scale.
https://kinde.com/pricing/ -
License Proprietary verified 2026-07-30
Standard SaaS terms-of-use grant, not an open-source licence. Kinde publishes open-source client SDKs/helper libraries under the kinde-oss GitHub org, but the core hosted platform is closed source.
we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, royalty-free, revocable, worldwide, non-transferable licence to use our Platform in accordance with these Terms. All other uses are prohibited without our prior
https://docs.kinde.com/trust-center/agreements/end-user-licence-agreement/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-30
Dated June 30, 2026 release note; changelog shows ongoing shipped features close to the current date.
Sign in with passkeys You can now offer your users passwordless authentication with passkeys (WebAuthn/FIDO2). Users can register and sign in with passkeys
https://updates.kinde.com/announcements/passkeys-flexible-billing-and-more -
Social login Yes verified 2026-07-30
Social proof built in Your users already know and love social login because they use it every day.
https://kinde.com/authentication/ -
Passwordless / magic links Partial verified 2026-07-30
Passwordless sign-in exists (email/SMS/username one-time passcode), but Kinde explicitly does not offer a magic-link flow.
Kinde does not support magic links as a password alternative, instead, we prefer to use one-time passcodes (OTPs) as they are more secure
https://docs.kinde.com/authenticate/authentication-methods/passwordless-authentication/ -
Passkeys / WebAuthn Yes verified 2026-07-30
Passkeys require a Kinde paid plan (Pro, Plus, Scale, or Enterprise) — not included on the Free tier.
Passkeys are a passwordless sign-in method based on the Web Authentication (WebAuthn) standard.
https://docs.kinde.com/authenticate/authentication-methods/passkeys/ -
MFA Yes verified 2026-07-30
Includes 10,500 MAU free, 0.7% per customer transaction, subscriptions & billing, email/SMS/social login, MFA, organizations, custom domain, workflows, M2M, RBAC, feature flags, and more.
https://kinde.com/pricing/ -
Enterprise SSO (SAML / OIDC) Yes verified 2026-07-30
SAML is broadly supported (Entra ID, Cloudflare, Google Workspace, LastPass, Okta, Custom SAML). OIDC/OAuth 2.0 enterprise connections are currently limited to Microsoft Entra ID specifically, not a g
Enterprise authentication is a common method for managing user access to systems in large organizations. Kinde supports a number of enterprise connection types, including: Microsoft Entra ID (OAuth 2.
https://docs.kinde.com/authenticate/enterprise-connections/about-enterprise-connections/ -
SCIM provisioning No verified 2026-07-30
Kinde's pricing page lists 'advanced MFA/SCIM' under the Scale plan, but this docs page explicitly states SCIM is still in development / coming soon. Reviewer should verify current status before publi
Automated provisioning with SCIM (coming soon) ... SCIM (System for Cross-domain Identity Management) support is currently in development.
https://docs.kinde.com/authenticate/enterprise-connections/provision-users-enterprise/ -
B2B org / multi-tenant Yes verified 2026-07-30
You can run multiple businesses on the Kinde platform, and you can also use organizations to separately manage sub-entities and user groups - known as multi-tenanting.
https://docs.kinde.com/build/organizations/multi-tenancy-using-organizations/ -
Self-hostable No verified 2026-07-30
Even the top Enterprise tier only offers Kinde-managed 'dedicated infrastructure', i.e. a dedicated hosted instance operated by Kinde, not a package customers can run on their own infrastructure. No s
Custom plan for teams with complex needs and highest support. Custom pricing. All features in Scale, plus: advanced deployment, dedicated infra, volume discounts, unlimited environments, custom SLAs/s
https://kinde.com/pricing/ -
Pre-built UI components Yes verified 2026-07-30
The Kinde widget is a core element in Kinde page design. The components that make up the widget have been specifically designed to be easily overridden by your own CSS so you can give it the look and
https://docs.kinde.com/design/customize-with-code/kinde-widget/ -
RBAC / permissions Yes verified 2026-07-30
Roles allow you to group permissions into buckets.
https://docs.kinde.com/manage-users/roles-and-permissions/user-roles/ -
Open source No verified 2026-07-30
This is a proprietary usage licence for the hosted service, not an open-source licence. Kinde does publish open-source SDKs/helper libraries under the kinde-oss GitHub org, but the core platform is cl
we grant you a personal, non-exclusive, royalty-free, revocable, worldwide, non-transferable licence to use our Platform in accordance with these Terms. All other uses are prohibited without our prior
https://docs.kinde.com/trust-center/agreements/end-user-licence-agreement/ -
Generous free tier (MAUs) Yes verified 2026-07-30
Yes, our Free plan gives you 10,500 monthly active users at no cost, and does not require a credit card to get started.
https://kinde.com/pricing/
FAQ
Yes. FusionAuth, Zitadel and Auth0 have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Ory, Zitadel and Keycloak — every license claim links its source.