Hanko vs Supabase Auth
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted identity & sso options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Hanko
Passkey-first authentication for modern applications
VS
Supabase Auth
Small JWT-based user authentication API service
| Feature | Hanko | Supabase Auth |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 87 · Excellent |
| Category | Identity & SSO | Identity & SSO |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary | docker, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,036 | ★ 2,569 |
| First released | 2022 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Auth0, Clerk | Auth0 |
What are Hanko and Supabase Auth?
Hanko
Hanko is an open-source authentication solution built around passkeys and passwordless login. It can be self-hosted to provide modern, phishing-resistant authentication to web and mobile applications.
- Passkey-first login
- Passwordless flows
- Embeddable web component
- Self-hosted API
Supabase Auth
GoTrue is a lightweight JSON Web Token based authentication API for managing users and sessions, originally from Netlify and extended by Supabase. It is self-hosted as a small Go service.
- JWT-based auth API
- Email and OAuth login
- Lightweight Go service
- Self-hostable
Hanko vs Supabase Auth: key differences
Both projects are written in Go. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Hanko versus MIT for Supabase Auth. Supabase Auth is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Hanko. Supabase Auth is the more established project (first released 2017), while Hanko arrived in 2022. Hanko has the considerably larger community, at 9,036 GitHub stars versus 2,569.
Why pick each one
Choose Hanko if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 9k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Choose Supabase Auth if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2.6k GitHub stars)
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Hanko or Supabase Auth better?
Neither is universally better. Hanko has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Hanko and Supabase Auth free and open-source?
Yes. Hanko is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Supabase Auth under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hanko and Supabase Auth with Docker?
Hanko: yes. Supabase Auth: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hanko or Supabase Auth?
Supabase Auth has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Hanko. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.