Clerk Pricing Explained

Clerk's pricing model is centered around Monthly Retained Users (MRU), distinguishing it from competitors like Auth0 and Supabase that use Monthly Active Users (MAU). This approach can result in lower costs for apps with typical user retention patterns, as Clerk only bills for users who return after their initial sign-up. Clerk offers a free tier for up to 50,000 MRU, with the Pro plan starting at $25/month, including one enterprise SSO connection—often a costly add-on with other providers. The Pro plan's cost scales predictably due to published rates for additional users beyond the free tier. Clerk is particularly suited for B2B SaaS and paid B2C applications where user retention is tied to revenue generation, though it may not be the best fit for free, ad-supported apps at high volumes or environments requiring self-hosting or strict data residency. The platform ensures no vendor lock-in by offering full user-data export across all plans. Despite not always being the cheapest option, especially where raw user volume is concerned, Clerk's clear pricing and included SSO make it a competitive choice for businesses valuing these features.