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Posted on • Originally published at masatoman.net

Auth for Indie Hackers 2026: Clerk vs Supabase Auth vs NextAuth v5

#authentication #nextjs #supabase #webdev

TL;DR

Stop building your own auth. In 2026, pick one of these three:

  • Clerk — 30 lines of code, beautiful UI, 10,000 free MAU
  • Supabase Auth — DB-native, RLS integration, 50,000 free MAU
  • NextAuth v5 — OSS, full control, free forever

Why You Shouldn't Build Your Own Auth

Hashing passwords. Email verification. Password reset. Session management. OAuth. 2FA.

I tried to roll my own. Spent 3 days. Gave up. Switched to Supabase Auth. Done in 30 minutes.

Your time is the one resource you can't scale. Don't waste it on problems that are 100% solved.

1. Clerk — Fastest to Ship 

// app/layout.tsx
import { ClerkProvider } from '@clerk/nextjs';

export default function RootLayout({ children }) {
  return (
    <ClerkProvider>
      <html>{children}</html>
    </ClerkProvider>
  );
}

// app/sign-in/[[...sign-in]]/page.tsx
import { SignIn } from '@clerk/nextjs';
export default () => <SignIn />;
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Ship in 10 minutes. Beautiful default UI. Organizations built-in for B2B SaaS.

Free tier: 10,000 MAU. Pro: $25/month.

2. Supabase Auth — Best for SaaS 

import { createClient } from '@supabase/supabase-js';

export const supabase = createClient(
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_URL!,
  process.env.NEXT_PUBLIC_SUPABASE_ANON_KEY!
);

// Sign up
await supabase.auth.signUp({ email, password });

// OAuth
await supabase.auth.signInWithOAuth({ provider: 'google' });
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UI is your job (or use @supabase/auth-ui-react).

Killer feature: Row Level Security. Gate paid features with SQL policies:

CREATE POLICY "paid_users_only" ON premium_feature
  FOR SELECT USING (
    EXISTS (
      SELECT 1 FROM subscriptions
      WHERE user_id = auth.uid() AND status = 'active'
    )
  );
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Free tier: 50,000 MAU. Pro: $25/month (includes DB).

3. NextAuth v5 — Full Control 

import NextAuth from 'next-auth';
import Google from 'next-auth/providers/google';

export const { auth, handlers, signIn, signOut } = NextAuth({
  providers: [Google],
  session: { strategy: 'jwt' }
});
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20+ providers. Your DB. Your rules.

Free tier: Infinite (OSS). You pay for the DB separately.

Decision Flowchart 

Building a SaaS with subscriptions?
  YES → Supabase Auth (RLS + Stripe = 🔥)
  NO  → Does UI polish matter more than control?
         YES → Clerk
         NO  → NextAuth
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Vendor Lock-in

Service Lock-in Migration cost
Clerk High All users must re-register
Supabase Auth Medium Rewrite auth layer
NextAuth Low Swap providers freely

For indie devs, high lock-in is fine early on. Shipping > optimizing.

Monetization Path

Auth is just the beginning. The real play:

User signs up (auth)
    ↓
Free tier (RLS gate open)
    ↓
Hits a limit / wants premium (Stripe Checkout)
    ↓
RLS gate opens for paid features
    ↓
💰
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At ~100 signups → 10 paying users × $5/month = $50/month. Realistic starting point.

Full guide (Japanese)

For detailed pricing, code comparisons, and revenue simulation, see the full guide on masatoman.net (Japanese).

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