Facts read November 6, 2026
Clerk vs Neon Auth
Clerk is Cuely's default auth pick when your description doesn't favor either one: fastest to a polished sign-in, with drop-in UI components. Pick Neon Auth if you care most about the lowest cost.
Side by side
| Fact | Clerk | Neon Auth |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hosted auth with prebuilt UI components and organizations. | Managed Better Auth that stores users and sessions in your Neon database. |
| Free plan | Hobby: 50,000 monthly retained users per app, 100 monthly retained organizations (up to 20 members each); no MFA, passkeys or SSO. | Included in every Neon plan at no separate charge; up to 60,000 MAU per project on Free. |
| Paid from | Pro: $20/month billed annually ($25 monthly), 50,000 MRU included, then $0.02 per MRU. | Neon Launch (pay as you go) raises the limit to 1M MAU per project. |
| At 1,000 users | $0/month | $0/month |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Best for | Fast setup with prebuilt sign-in UI; Next.js and React apps; Consumer and prosumer apps | Apps already on Neon; Fewer vendors; Users and sessions queryable in SQL |
| Watch out | The free plan excludes MFA, passkeys and SSO. B2B features beyond the basics (custom roles, domain restrictions) are a $100/month add-on. | 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 | Clerk | Neon Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Next.js or React | +3 First-class Next.js SDK with prebuilt components. | 0 No particular strength here. |
| sells to businesses (organizations, roles, SSO) | +1 Organizations on all plans; SSO and advanced B2B features cost extra. | −1 Organizations are only partly supported today. |
| keep costs as low as possible | 0 50k free users, but MFA and SSO need a paid plan. | +2 No separate auth fee. |
| fewer vendors | 0 No particular strength here. | +2 Users live in the same Neon database, under the neon_auth schema. |
| native iOS or Android app | +1 Has an Expo SDK for React Native apps. | 0 No particular strength here. |
Sources: Clerk pricing (read November 6, 2026), Neon Auth pricing (read November 6, 2026). No vendor pays for placement.