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Kinde vs Auth0

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of Kinde and Auth0 built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 24 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose Kinde if…

Products that want a predictable flat fee and a large free user allowance that does not change when you start paying — 10,500 MAU on every tier is the opposite of Auth0's paid-plan cliff.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Auth0 if…

Projects that fit inside the free 25,000 monthly active users, which includes an enterprise connection, self-service SSO and SCIM at no cost.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • Kinde: Enterprise SSO only becomes free at the $75 tier, and if you use Kinde's billing there is a 0.5% cut of your own transactions on top of the plan fee.
  • Auth0: Leaving the free plan is a cliff rather than a step: paid tiers begin at 500 MAU, and a footnote says enterprise connections, SSO and SCIM need a B2B upgrade to keep.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: Kinde alternatives · Auth0 alternatives

14 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit Kinde documentationVisit Auth0 documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionKindeAuth0
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerAlways freeFree tier
What the free plan includes
10,500 monthly active users on every plan, with paid features billed on top; no credit card required.
25,000 monthly active users at no cost and no credit card to sign up.
Credit card to startNoNo
Entry paid plan
$25/month for Pro. Plus is $75 and the top tier $250 — each including the same 10,500 MAU as the free plan.
$35/month for Essentials at 500 monthly active users; Professional is $240/month at the same volume. Both scale with the MAU slider.
Pricing modelA flat monthly fee with the same MAU allowance at every level, plus a transaction fee when you bill your own customers through Kinde — 0.5% per transaction, discounted 0.1% on Plus and 0.2% above.Per monthly active user, chosen on a slider, with a discontinuity that is easy to miss: the free plan covers 25,000 MAU and includes an enterprise connection, SSO and SCIM, while the paid tiers start at 500 MAU and a footnote says keeping those three features requires upgrading to B2B.
Auth
Users included
10,500 monthly active users on every tier including free. Paying more does not buy more users — Pro adds uncapped MAU billing, and the higher tiers add MAU discounts of 6% and 13%.
25,000 monthly active users on the free plan — the largest free allowance here apart from WorkOS. Essentials and Professional start at 500 and are priced upward from there.
SAML single sign-onSupportedSupported
Multi-factor authenticationSupportedSupported
Audit logsKinde includes enterprise SSO, RBAC, advanced security, custom domains, audit logs, and compliance features on higher plans.Audit log streaming to Datadog, Splunk, AWS and Azure, from the Essentials plan up. Auth0 publishes no retention window on the pricing page.
Support
Support on entry paid planEmail support plus Slack and Discord community access on every plan including Free. In-app chat support starts at Pro, which has a $25 base price.Community support on Free; standard support on Essentials ($35/month), the entry paid plan.
Compliance
SOC 2SOC 2 Type 2 completed with report and attestation from AssuranceLab; full report is on paid plans (Pro, Plus, Scale) under NDA, not Free.SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports listed in Okta's trust centre (Auth0's parent), available on access request.
ISO 27001ISO 27001:2022 certified by Compass Assurance Services, with an ISMS and a dedicated internal security team; certificate downloadable from the docs.ISO/IEC 27001:2022, with 27017:2015 and 27018:2019 alongside it; one combined report on access request.
HIPAA
HIPAA compliant and acts as a Business Associate; a BAA is put in place on request before work begins. Kinde's FusionAuth comparison table lists HIPAA/BAA as Enterprise only.
HIPAA listed among the certifications in Okta's trust centre; no scope detail is published there.
GDPR / data residency
GDPR compliant; data stays in the region chosen at sign-up (Sydney, Dublin, Oregon, London or Quebec), with only backend business metadata replicated. Region is picked at sign-up and cannot be changed later (docs: Supported data regions).
GDPR listed among the certifications in Okta's trust centre, alongside EU-US DPF and its UK extension; no residency choice is documented there.
PCI DSS
No PCI-DSS Report on Compliance from a QSA; uses a third party provider's SAQ-A scope, with its own SAQ and AOC in preparation for the billing feature.
Auth0 offers PCI compliant environment deployment models; the Attestation of Compliance and/or SAQ-D is available on request through the Support Center.
Encryption at restAES256 for all customer data at rest in the production databases; keys via AWS KMS, with KMS administration limited to privileged admins.Envelope encryption at the application layer: data encryption keys are AES-256-GCM and stored next to the data, wrapped by tenant and environment root keys.
Dedicated infrastructureOffered as an option on the custom-priced Enterprise plan (with Kinde Care for Enterprise+), alongside advanced deployment options.Private Cloud on AWS is a dedicated, managed instance of the Auth0 platform with single tenancy, against the multi-tenant Public Cloud; Azure has the same option.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

Kind of free offer

Kinde
Always free
Auth0
Free tier
Sources (2) →

What the free plan includes

Kinde

10,500 monthly active users on every plan, with paid features billed on top; no credit card required.

Auth0

25,000 monthly active users at no cost and no credit card to sign up.

Sources (2) →
  • Kinde Pricing ↗

    “Every plan includes a free tier of 10,500 monthly active users (MAU), with paid features and usage billed as you scale. [...] Yes, our free plan gives you 10,500 monthly active users at no cost, and does not require a credit card to get started.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Auth0 Pricing ↗

    “If I surpass the 25,000 users free plan do I need to select a paid plan with a higher MAU quota?”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official pricing · Report a correction

Entry paid plan

Kinde
$25/month for Pro. Plus is $75 and the top tier $250 — each including the same 10,500 MAU as the free plan.
Auth0
$35/month for Essentials at 500 monthly active users; Professional is $240/month at the same volume. Both scale with the MAU slider.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Kinde ↗

    “$25 USD per month 10,500 MAU free [...] $75 USD per month 10,500 MAU free [...] $250 USD per month 10,500 MAU free”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Auth0 ↗

    “ESSENTIALS $ 35 / month [...] Up to 500 monthly active users [...] PROFESSIONAL $ 240 / month [...] Up to 500 monthly active users”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Pricing model

Kinde
A flat monthly fee with the same MAU allowance at every level, plus a transaction fee when you bill your own customers through Kinde — 0.5% per transaction, discounted 0.1% on Plus and 0.2% above.
Auth0
Per monthly active user, chosen on a slider, with a discontinuity that is easy to miss: the free plan covers 25,000 MAU and includes an enterprise connection, SSO and SCIM, while the paid tiers start at 500 MAU and a footnote says keeping those three features requires upgrading to B2B.
Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Kinde ↗

    “When you bill your customers with Kinde: 0.5% per transaction MAU is free [...] 0.1% transaction fee discount [...] 0.2% transaction fee discount”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Auth0 ↗

    “Free $ 0 / month No credit card needed to sign up. Start building for free Up to 25,000 monthly active users [...] Essentials $ 35 / month For projects with higher production demands. Sign up Up to 500 monthly active users [...] Upgrade to B2B to continue using EC, Self-Service SSO, and SCIM.”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

Users included

Kinde

10,500 monthly active users on every tier including free. Paying more does not buy more users — Pro adds uncapped MAU billing, and the higher tiers add MAU discounts of 6% and 13%.

Auth0

25,000 monthly active users on the free plan — the largest free allowance here apart from WorkOS. Essentials and Professional start at 500 and are priced upward from there.

Sources (2) →
  • Pricing — Kinde ↗

    “$0 forever 10,500 monthly active users (MAU) [...] $25 USD per month 10,500 MAU free [...] Uncapped MAU [...] 6% MAU discount [...] 13% MAU discount”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Pricing — Auth0 ↗

    “Up to 25,000 monthly active users [...] ESSENTIALS [...] Up to 500 monthly active users”

    Read 2026-09-06 · official pricing · Report a correction

Audit logs

Kinde
Kinde includes enterprise SSO, RBAC, advanced security, custom domains, audit logs, and compliance features on higher plans.
Auth0
Audit log streaming to Datadog, Splunk, AWS and Azure, from the Essentials plan up. Auth0 publishes no retention window on the pricing page.
Sources (2) →

Support on entry paid plan

Kinde
Email support plus Slack and Discord community access on every plan including Free. In-app chat support starts at Pro, which has a $25 base price.
Auth0
Community support on Free; standard support on Essentials ($35/month), the entry paid plan.
Sources (2) →
  • Kinde Pricing ↗

    “support feature free plan pro plan plus plan scale plan in-app support via chat not included included included included email support included included included included slack community access included included included included”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Auth0 Pricing ↗

    “brand customization basic attack protection community support 1 enterprise connection [...] separate production & development environments standard support”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official pricing · Report a correction

SOC 2

Kinde
SOC 2 Type 2 completed with report and attestation from AssuranceLab; full report is on paid plans (Pro, Plus, Scale) under NDA, not Free.
Auth0
SOC 1, SOC 2 and SOC 3 reports listed in Okta's trust centre (Auth0's parent), available on access request.
Sources (2) →
  • Compliance - Kinde docs ↗

    “Kinde has completed a SOC 2 Type 2 with report and attestation from AssuranceLab [...] Access to the full SOC 2 report is included in our paid plans (Pro, Plus, and Scale) but is not currently available on the Free plan.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Okta Security Trust Center ↗

    “ProcessUnity SOC 1 SOC 2 SOC 3 GovRAMP [...] REPORTS SOC 1 Report REPORTS SOC 2 Report REPORTS SOC 3 Report”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

ISO 27001

Kinde
ISO 27001:2022 certified by Compass Assurance Services, with an ISMS and a dedicated internal security team; certificate downloadable from the docs.
Auth0
ISO/IEC 27001:2022, with 27017:2015 and 27018:2019 alongside it; one combined report on access request.
Sources (2) →
  • Compliance - Kinde docs ↗

    “Kinde is ISO 27001:2022 certified by Compass Assurance Services and maintains an information security management system (ISMS) with a dedicated internal security team. [...] download a copy of our ISO 27001:2022 certificate”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Okta Security Trust Center ↗

    “ISO/IEC 27001:2022 ISO/IEC 27017:2015 ISO/IEC 27018:2019 NIST 800-53 Rev. 5 PCI DSS v4.0.0 [...] REPORTS ISO 27001 / 27017 / 27018”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

HIPAA

Kinde
HIPAA compliant and acts as a Business Associate; a BAA is put in place on request before work begins. Kinde's FusionAuth comparison table lists HIPAA/BAA as Enterprise only.
Auth0
HIPAA listed among the certifications in Okta's trust centre; no scope detail is published there.
Sources (2) →

GDPR / data residency

Kinde
GDPR compliant; data stays in the region chosen at sign-up (Sydney, Dublin, Oregon, London or Quebec), with only backend business metadata replicated. Region is picked at sign-up and cannot be changed later (docs: Supported data regions).
Auth0
GDPR listed among the certifications in Okta's trust centre, alongside EU-US DPF and its UK extension; no residency choice is documented there.
Sources (2) →
  • Security at Kinde - Kinde docs ↗

    “has an attestation for SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA, and are GDPR compliant [...] Data is stored in the region you selected during sign up of our product. Currently the available regions are Sydney, Australia; Dublin, Ireland; Oregon, USA; London, UK; and Quebec, Canada. [...] The only data replicated between regions is backend business metadata”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Okta Security Trust Center ↗

    “EU Cloud COC EU-US DPF FedRAMP High FedRAMP Moderate FIPS 140-2 GDPR HIPAA [...] Swiss-US DPF TISAX TruSight UK Extension to EU-US DPF”

    Read 2026-09-14 · official site · Report a correction

PCI DSS

Kinde
No PCI-DSS Report on Compliance from a QSA; uses a third party provider's SAQ-A scope, with its own SAQ and AOC in preparation for the billing feature.
Auth0
Auth0 offers PCI compliant environment deployment models; the Attestation of Compliance and/or SAQ-D is available on request through the Support Center.
Sources (2) →
  • Compliance - Kinde docs ↗

    “Please note that Kinde does not hold a PCI-DSS Report on Compliance (ROC) from a Qualified Security Assessor (QSA). [...] Currently we use a third party service provider and their SAQ-A scoped method, which greatly reduces the scope that Kinde has to meet as a PCI-DSS Service Provider. [...] Our SAQ and Attestation of Compliance (AOC) will be available when scoping work is completed”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Auth0 Data Privacy and Compliance - Auth0 Docs ↗

    “Auth0 offers PCI compliant environment deployment models. Our Attestation of Compliance (AOC) and/or Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ-D) is available upon request.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Encryption at rest

Kinde
AES256 for all customer data at rest in the production databases; keys via AWS KMS, with KMS administration limited to privileged admins.
Auth0
Envelope encryption at the application layer: data encryption keys are AES-256-GCM and stored next to the data, wrapped by tenant and environment root keys.
Sources (2) →
  • Security at Kinde - Kinde docs ↗

    “All customer data at rest is encrypted in the Kinde production databases using the industry standard AES256 encryption algorithm. Encryption is facilitated by AWS KMS with access to administer KMS strictly limited to privileged admins.”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

  • Customer Managed Keys - Auth0 Docs ↗

    “At the Auth0 application layer, Auth0 secures customer secrets and data using envelope encryption. [...] Data Encryption Key AES-256-GCM Stored next to the data”

    Read 2026-09-13 · official docs · Report a correction

Dedicated infrastructure

Kinde
Offered as an option on the custom-priced Enterprise plan (with Kinde Care for Enterprise+), alongside advanced deployment options.
Auth0
Private Cloud on AWS is a dedicated, managed instance of the Auth0 platform with single tenancy, against the multi-tenant Public Cloud; Azure has the same option.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Startup credit programAuth0: Auth0 for Startups: free access for venture-backed companies under $5M funding, under $1M ARR and under two years old.
Self-hostableAuth0: Not supported — Documented options are the multi-tenant Public Cloud and Auth0-managed Private Cloud on AWS or Azure.
SCIM provisioningAuth0: Supported
Customer-managed keysAuth0: Bring Your Own Key imports a Customer Provided Root Key into a FIPS 140-2 L3 HSM, replacing Auth0's Environment Root Key for the tenant. Only users holding the Key Management Editor tenant role can use it.
Role-based access controlAuth0: Core Authorization provides role-based access control of your APIs: roles and permissions assigned to users, enabled per API from the Dashboard or Management API.
Private networking / VPCAuth0: Private Cloud on AWS only, and outbound only: AWS PrivateLink reaches your own services from the deployment without exposing data to the internet. Set up by Auth0 after you file a request; Private Cloud on Azure uses Azure Private Link.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: Kinde or Auth0?

Kinde: $25/month for Pro. Plus is $75 and the top tier $250 — each including the same 10,500 MAU as the free plan.

Auth0: $35/month for Essentials at 500 monthly active users; Professional is $240/month at the same volume. Both scale with the MAU slider.

Should I choose Kinde or Auth0?

Pick Kinde if Products that want a predictable flat fee and a large free user allowance that does not change when you start paying — 10,500 MAU on every tier is the opposite of Auth0's paid-plan cliff.

Pick Auth0 if Projects that fit inside the free 25,000 monthly active users, which includes an enterprise connection, self-service SSO and SCIM at no cost.

Provider pages

KindeAuth and billing platform where every plan, paid or free, includes the same 10,500 monthly active users — the fee buys features rather than headroom.Auth0Okta's developer identity platform, priced by monthly active users with sharply lower allowances on paid tiers than on free.

Related comparisons

Auth0 vs Better AuthAuth0 vs StytchAuth0 vs SuperTokensAuth0 vs WorkOSBetter Auth vs KindeClerk vs Auth0Kinde vs ClerkKinde vs Stytch

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.