SuperTokens vs. Hanko: Full-Stack Authentication vs. Passkey-First Open Source

SuperTokens and Hanko are open-source, self-hostable authentication platforms with managed cloud offerings, but they target different needs: SuperTokens provides a broad authentication stack for B2B SaaS, while Hanko is centered on passkey-first, passwordless consumer experiences. Hanko’s FIDO2-certified WebAuthn infrastructure and standalone Passkey API allow passkeys to be added to existing authentication systems, whereas SuperTokens includes passkeys among broader features such as multi-tenancy, role-based access control, enterprise SAML SSO, rotating refresh tokens, and token theft detection. Their licensing differs significantly, with SuperTokens using permissive Apache 2.0 licensing and Hanko using AGPL v3 for its backend alongside MIT-licensed frontend components, meaning modified self-hosted Hanko backends used as network services must generally have those modifications published. Hanko Cloud is generally less expensive per monthly active user, offers a larger free tier and a startup program that can provide up to one million free MAUs for qualifying companies, while SuperTokens may incur additional costs for features such as MFA and account linking. SuperTokens offers its strongest prebuilt interface support for React and Next.js, while Hanko Elements use framework-independent Web Components. The comparison concludes that SuperTokens is better suited to organizations needing comprehensive B2B identity capabilities and permissive licensing, Hanko is better for passkey-focused and cost-sensitive B2C applications, and the two can be combined by using Hanko’s Passkey API alongside SuperTokens’ core authentication platform.

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