Clerk Review

About Clerk

Clerk is an authentication and user management platform designed for developers building web and mobile applications. It provides a complete authentication solution with pre-built UI components, APIs, and SDKs that can be integrated into applications with minimal code.

The platform offers various authentication methods including email/password, social logins (Google, Facebook, GitHub, etc.), passwordless authentication, and multi-factor authentication. Clerk handles the entire user lifecycle from registration and verification to profile management and session handling.

Clerk targets developers and development teams who want to implement secure, scalable authentication without building it from scratch. The service provides customizable UI components that match application designs, along with comprehensive user management features like organization support, role-based access control, and user analytics.

The platform competes in the authentication-as-a-service market alongside providers like Auth0, Firebase Authentication, and AWS Cognito. Clerk differentiates itself with developer-friendly APIs, modern UI components, and a focus on ease of implementation for both experienced developers and those new to authentication systems.

Features

AI

MCP Server
Adds secure, consent-driven access to applications backed by Clerk's authentication and authorization for agentic use cases.

Collaboration

Organization Management
Provides UI components and APIs for onboarding and managing users and organizations in multi-tenant SaaS applications, including invitations and auto-join by email domain.

Core

API Keys
Gives every user secure, production-ready API keys without requiring developers to build underlying boilerplate code or UI.
Custom Roles and Permissions
Provides powerful primitives to fully customize an application's authorization with custom roles and permissions for multi-tenant B2B use cases.
Drop-in UI Components
Pre-built pixel-perfect components for authentication, profile management, organization management, and billing that can be embedded in minutes and matched to any brand with any CSS library.
Magic Links
Improves sign-up conversion rates and filters out spam and fraud by sending users a magic link for passwordless authentication.
Social Sign-On (SSO)
Adds social sign-on to applications with 20+ provider options including Google and GitHub.
Subscription Billing
Adds subscription billing to B2C or B2B applications via drop-in React components without requiring custom payment code, UI, or webhook handling.

Security

Bot Detection
Reduces fraudulent sign-ups using built-in, continually updated machine learning.
Fraud and Abuse Prevention
Blocks high-risk disposable email domains and restricts use of email subaddresses with the '+' separator to reduce fraudulent sign-ups and free trial abuse.
Multifactor Authentication
Each user's self-serve multifactor settings are enforced automatically during sign-in.
Session Management
Manages the full session lifecycle including active device monitoring and session revocation.

Preview

Pricing Plans

Hobby

Free

Free tier for development. 50,000 MAU included, up to 3 dashboard seats.

50,000 MAU included
Up to 3 dashboard seats
Unlimited applications
APIs and prebuilt UIs
Custom domain
7-day session lifetime

Popular

Pro

$20/monthly

Annual billing. 50,000 MAU included then $0.02/MAU. Removes Clerk branding, adds MFA.

50,000 MAU included
$0.02/MAU overage
Remove Clerk branding
Multi-factor authentication
1 enterprise connection
Custom session duration
SMS authentication

Business

$250/monthly

Annual billing. For growing teams; includes SOC 2 report, enhanced roles, 30-day log retention.

50,000 MAU included
$0.02/MAU overage
10 dashboard seats
SOC 2 Report
Enhanced dashboard roles
Priority support
30-day log retention

Enterprise

Contact sales

Custom annual contract with SLAs and compliance options.

Annual committed-use discounts
99.99% uptime SLA
Enterprise SSO for workspace
Dedicated Slack support
Custom log retention
HIPAA + BAA available

AI Panel Reviews

AI panel reviews are being generated for this product.

Buyer Questions

Common questions answered by our AI research team

Pricing

What is the cost per Monthly Retained User (MRU) once I exceed the 50,000 included in the Pro plan, and are there volume discounts at higher usage tiers?

After the 50,000 included MRUs on the Pro plan, the cost is $0.02/mo each for 50,001–100,000 MRUs. Volume discounts apply at higher tiers: $0.018/mo each for 100,001–1,000,000, $0.015/mo each for 1,000,001–10,000,000, and $0.012/mo each above 10,000,001.

Security

Does Clerk's built-in bot detection and fraud prevention block disposable email domains and email subaddresses with the '+' separator on all plans, or is it limited to certain tiers?

The content describes bot detection and fraud/abuse prevention (including blocking disposable email domains and restricting email subaddresses with the '+' separator) as general features, but does not specify which plan tiers these are available on or limited to.

Setup

How do I remove the 'Secured by Clerk' branding from the pre-built SignIn and SignUp components, and which plan is required to do so?

To remove the 'Secured by Clerk' branding from pre-built UIs, you must upgrade to the Pro plan or higher. The Hobby (free) plan does not include this option, while Pro and Business plans both include it.

Integration

Does Clerk's Billing add-on integrate directly with Stripe, and what fees does Clerk charge on top of Stripe's standard transaction fees?

Yes, Clerk's Billing add-on integrates directly with Stripe. On top of Stripe's standard 2.9% + $0.30 transaction fee, Clerk charges an additional 0.7% of billing volume.

Features

What B2B authentication features are included for free versus what requires the $100/month enhanced B2B add-on, specifically around custom roles and unlimited organization members?

The free tier included in all plans provides: 100 MRO per app, up to 20 members per organization, Admin & Member roles, custom permissions, and invitations. The $100/mo (or $85/mo billed annually) enhanced B2B add-on adds: unlimited members per organization, link Enterprise connections with organizations, verified domains & automatic invitations, and custom roles & rolesets.