Clerk vs Infisical
User management and authentication as a service
vs. Open-source secrets, PKI and SSH — self-hostable Doppler/Vault alternative
Pricing tiers
Clerk
Free
50k MAU included. No SSO/SAML. Perfect for side projects and early prototypes.
Free
Pro
$25/mo (or $20/mo annual). 50k MAU, $0.02 each after. 1 enterprise SSO connection per app. Webhooks, JWT templates, custom session duration.
$25/mo
Business
$300/mo (or $250/mo annual). Advanced organizations, enhanced support, additional enterprise features.
$300/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Volume MAU discounts, SLA, workspace-wide SAML SSO, dedicated support.
Custom
Infisical
Free (Cloud)
$0. Unlimited users. 5 projects. 30-day audit. Community support.
Free
Self-Host CE (OSS)
Free forever. MIT license. Core features free. Docker Compose.
$0 base (usage-based)
Pro
$18/user/mo. Unlimited projects, secret rotation, dynamic secrets, 90-day audit, Slack alerts.
$18/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SAML, SCIM, SLA, dedicated deploy, HIPAA-ready, audit 1yr+.
Custom
Self-Host EE (BSL)
Custom. BSL-licensed enterprise features for self-hosted deploys.
Custom
Free-tier quotas head-to-head
Comparing hobby on Clerk vs free on Infisical.
| Metric | Clerk | Infisical |
|---|---|---|
| mao | 100 orgs/month | — |
| mau | 50000 users/month | — |
| sso connections | 0 connections | — |
Features
Clerk · 15 features
- Account Portal — Hosted sign-in/user profile pages at accounts.yourapp.com — zero UI code, fully …
- Bot Protection — Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA integrated into sign-up.
- Clerk Billing — Built-in Stripe-powered billing: subscriptions, plans, proration — ties directly…
- Enterprise SSO (SAML/OIDC) — SAML and OIDC for enterprise customers. Per-domain connection. Pro+ (1 included)…
- Impersonation — Act as a user from dashboard to debug. Logged.
- JWT Templates — Custom JWT issuance for third-party backends (Supabase, Hasura, Firebase, Convex…
- Machine Tokens (M2M) — API keys and machine tokens for service-to-service auth in addition to user sess…
- Multi-Factor Auth — TOTP (authenticator apps), SMS OTP, backup codes. Forced or optional per user.
- Organizations (B2B) — Multi-tenant orgs with roles, permissions, invitations, domain allowlist, and pe…
- Passkeys (WebAuthn) — Passwordless passkey sign-in with per-device biometrics.
- Prebuilt Components — Drop-in React components: <SignIn/>, <SignUp/>, <UserButton/>, <OrganizationSwit…
- Sessions — Server-side session tokens. Sliding expiration by default; configurable absolute…
- User Management — Full user CRUD, metadata (public/private/unsafe), email/phone verification, ban/…
- Waitlist Mode — Collect sign-ups before opening the app. Approve waitlist entries to activate ac…
- Webhooks — Events: user.created/updated/deleted, session.created, organization.* — delivere…
Infisical · 18 features
- Approval Policies — PR-style approvals.
- Audit Log — Full activity trail.
- Dynamic Secrets — Generate on-demand creds.
- E2E Encryption — Optional zero-knowledge mode.
- Environments — Multi-env (dev/staging/prod).
- Infisical Agent — Sidecar for secret injection.
- Infisical CLI — Command-line access.
- Kubernetes Operator — Native K8s controller.
- PKI (Certificates) — Private CA + cert lifecycle.
- RBAC — Roles + permissions.
- SCIM — User provisioning.
- Secret Rotation — Auto-rotate keys.
- Secrets Management — Core secret storage.
- Secret Sync — Sync to cloud/hosting.
- Self-Host (CE + EE) — Docker / Helm / AMI.
- SSH — Ephemeral SSH access.
- SSO (SAML) — Enterprise auth.
- Webhooks — Change events.
Developer interfaces
| Kind | Clerk | Infisical |
|---|---|---|
| CLI | — | infisical CLI |
| SDK | @clerk/astro, @clerk/backend / @clerk/clerk-sdk-node, @clerk/chrome-extension, @clerk/clerk-expo, @clerk/clerk-js (vanilla), @clerk/clerk-react, @clerk/clerk-react-native, @clerk/nextjs, @clerk/nuxt, @clerk/remix, clerk-sdk-go, clerk-sdk-python, clerk-sdk-ruby, @clerk/tanstack-start, @clerk/vue | infisical-python, @infisical/sdk |
| REST | Backend REST API, Frontend API | Infisical REST API |
| MCP | Clerk MCP | — |
| OTHER | Webhooks (Svix) | Infisical Agent, Infisical Dashboard, Kubernetes Operator, Self-Host (Docker) |
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