Facts read November 6, 2026
Better Auth vs Neon Auth
Better Auth is Cuely's default auth pick when your description doesn't favor either one: free, open source, and your users stay in your own database. Pick Neon Auth if you care most about native mobile apps.
Side by side
| Fact | Better Auth | Neon Auth |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Open-source TypeScript auth library that stores users in your own database. | Managed Better Auth that stores users and sessions in your Neon database. |
| Free plan | The library is free and MIT-licensed with no per-user costs. Optional managed infrastructure has a $0 Starter plan. | Included in every Neon plan at no separate charge; up to 60,000 MAU per project on Free. |
| Paid from | Optional infrastructure Pro: $20/month (dashboard, audit logs, security detections). | Neon Launch (pay as you go) raises the limit to 1M MAU per project. |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $0/month |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hostable | Yes | No |
| Best for | Owning user data with no per-user fees; Self-hosted or open-source projects; TypeScript backends | Apps already on Neon; Fewer vendors; Users and sessions queryable in SQL |
| Watch out | You run it: security updates, email delivery and session storage are your job. | Neon lists the Organization plugin as partial and MFA as coming soon. Available in AWS regions only; above 1M MAU per project you contact Neon. |
Where they differ
The published scores, from −3 to +3, that decide which one Cuely picks for each need.
| Need | Better Auth | Neon Auth |
|---|---|---|
| prefers open source or self-hosting | +3 MIT-licensed library; users live in your own database. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | +1 Organization and SSO plugins exist, but you operate them yourself. | −1 Organizations are only partly supported today. |
| EU data residency or GDPR | +2 User data stays in whatever region your database runs in. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| native iOS or Android app | −2 Runs inside your own server, which a phone app on a hosted backend doesn't have. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| fewer vendors | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Users live in the same Neon database, under the neon_auth schema. |
| keep costs as low as possible | +3 No per-user fees at any scale. | +2 No separate auth fee. |
Sources: Better Auth pricing (read November 6, 2026), Neon Auth pricing (read November 6, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.