SuperTokens overview covering open-source authentication features, self-hosted vs cloud pricing, and how it compares to Auth0 and Firebase Auth.
SuperTokens is an open-source authentication and session management platform built as an alternative to closed-source identity providers. Founded in 2019 by Rishabh Poddar and Advait Ruia and headquartered in San Francisco with a Mumbai office, the company positions its product as a way for engineering teams to own their authentication stack instead of depending entirely on a third-party vendor.
The platform can be deployed in two ways: fully self-hosted on a team's own infrastructure using the open-source core at no cost, or run through SuperTokens' managed cloud service, which handles hosting, scaling, and reliability for a usage-based fee.
Core authentication methods include email and password login, passwordless login through magic links or one-time codes sent by SMS or email, and social and OAuth 2.0 login with providers such as Google, GitHub, and Facebook. The platform also handles email verification and password reset flows out of the box.
Beyond login itself, SuperTokens provides session management, a user management dashboard, role-based access control, multi-factor authentication, and prebuilt sign-up and sign-in UI components, along with hooks and overrides that let developers customize behavior at the code level. Backend SDKs are available for Node.js, Python, and Go, with frontend support for vanilla JavaScript, React, and React Native.
Self-hosting the open-source core is free at any scale, with no cap on the number of users, since teams run it on their own database and infrastructure. SuperTokens' managed cloud offering is free for up to 5,000 monthly active users, then billed at 0.02 dollars per MAU with a 100 dollar monthly minimum once that threshold is exceeded.
Paid add-ons apply on top of the base plan for both self-hosted and cloud deployments, including multi-factor authentication at 0.01 dollars per MAU, account linking at 0.005 dollars per MAU, and dashboard users at 20 dollars per user per month with three free. Multi-tenancy and machine-to-machine authentication are priced through custom sales quotes.
Yes, the open-source core is free to self-host at any scale, and the managed cloud version is free for up to 5,000 monthly active users.
SuperTokens was founded in 2019 by Rishabh Poddar and Advait Ruia and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Self-hosted use is free at unlimited scale; the managed cloud service charges 0.02 dollars per monthly active user above a 5,000 MAU free tier, with a 100 dollar monthly minimum once billing starts, plus optional paid add-ons.
SuperTokens supports email and password login, passwordless login via magic link or OTP, and social and OAuth 2.0 login with providers like Google, GitHub, and Facebook.
Yes, SuperTokens is commonly positioned as an open-source alternative to Auth0, Firebase Auth, and AWS Cognito.
Backend SDKs cover Node.js, Python, and Go, with frontend support for vanilla JavaScript, React, and React Native.
Yes, the open-source core can be self-hosted on a team's own infrastructure and database at no licensing cost.
Yes, multi-factor authentication is available as a paid add-on priced per monthly active user.