What is the best way to add authentication to an app?
Use a managed provider. Session handling, token refresh, and account recovery are where hand-rolled auth breaks, and an agent writing it from scratch will produce something that works and is quietly unsafe.
Surveyed 10 August 2026
Add authentication
Open in Tools →- 01Auth0
Identity platform for developers. Enterprise-grade identity-as-a-service: social, enterprise SSO, MFA, and authorization. Owned by Okta. Free up to 25,000 MAU.
Developer Tools - 02Better Auth
Modern open-source TypeScript auth. Framework-agnostic, fully featured TypeScript auth library. Bring-your-own-database with adapters for Drizzle, Prisma, Kysely, and more.
Developer Tools - 03Firebase Auth
Auth built into Firebase. Email/password, social, phone, and anonymous auth integrated with Firebase. Free for unlimited MAU on the Spark plan.
Developer Tools - 04Supabase Auth
Auth built into Supabase. Postgres-backed auth with email/password, social, magic links, phone, and SSO. Free up to 50,000 MAU on Supabase Pro.
Developer Tools - 05Auth.js
Open-source authentication for the web. Framework-agnostic, formerly NextAuth.
Developer Tools - 06WorkOS
Enterprise SSO and directory sync. B2B-focused auth platform: SAML, SCIM, OIDC, magic auth, audit logs. Free for the first million MAU on AuthKit.
Developer Tools
Ordered by the VibeLeaderboard index, re-surveyed each edition. Something missing?
What to look for
- 01Does it hand you a verified session server-side, or only a client-side token you must validate yourself?
- 02Does it cover recovery, email change, and session revocation? Those are most of the real work.
- 03Does authorization integrate with your database's access rules, or sit beside them?
Common questions
- Should I let an AI agent write authentication from scratch?
- No. It will produce something that logs users in and is subtly wrong — token validation on the client only, sessions that never revoke, redirects that can be pointed anywhere. Use a provider.
- What is the most common auth bug in generated code?
- Trusting a client-supplied user ID instead of the server-verified session, which lets any authenticated user act as any other by changing one value in the request.
More in Ship and operate
- Interface with your agentsTerminals, multiplexers, and runtimes for running coding agents all day.
- Add a backendCombine databases, storage, APIs, and server-side functions.
- Accept paymentsAdd subscriptions, checkout, billing, and payment infrastructure.
- Monitor product and usageCompare error monitoring, observability, product analytics, and web analytics.
- Add email and messagingSend transactional email, notifications, chat, and product messages.
- Secure and connect a domainFind domains, DNS, certificates, secrets, and application security services.