Customer identity and access management · November 2026 Edition
WorkOS AuthKit vs Clerk
Five of fourteen models named WorkOS AuthKit first on the direct prompt; zero named Clerk. WorkOS AuthKit was named by twelve of the fourteen models and Clerk by ten and WorkOS AuthKit carries 29 labels and Clerk 23, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in two categories this edition.
First-choice share13%4%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate10%13%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#6A position in a field of 16; printed, not drawn.
Labels2923A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, WorkOS AuthKit reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Frontegg was named alongside these two in twelve of the fourteen direct answers. Auth0 vs WorkOS AuthKit · Auth0 vs Clerk · WorkOS AuthKit vs Frontegg
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the customer identity and access management page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
WorkOS AuthKitFirst choices, of fourteen modelsClerk
Direct50
Paraphrase20
Comparative00
Budget-constrained02
Scale-constrained00
Negative003 against WorkOS AuthKit · 3 against Clerk
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, WorkOS AuthKit and Clerk were named in the same answer thirty-nine times, of the 87 answers naming WorkOS AuthKit and the 84 naming Clerk. In those answers Clerk took the first choice fourteen times and WorkOS AuthKit ten.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where WorkOS AuthKit and Clerk stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | ||||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | |||
| Grok 4.20 | | | ||||
| Mistral Small | | |||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | |||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | |||
| Kimi K2 | | | | |||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | ||||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | |||||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | |
WorkOS AuthKit Clerk first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, WorkOS AuthKit on the left and Clerk on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where WorkOS AuthKit and Clerk stood in it.
WorkOS AuthKit first, Clerk an alternative
5 of 14 modelsClerk was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Gemini 3.5 FlashWorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Clerk, Descope, Frontegg, Stytch
Grok 4.20WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Frontegg, Stytch
Kimi K2WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Frontegg, Stytch
GPT-6 LunaWorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Stytch
Muse Glimmer 30BKinde, WorkOS AuthKit alternatives: Auth0, Frontegg, Okta, OneLogin
Neither was the first choice, one was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarAuth0 alternatives: Amazon Cognito, Frontegg, FusionAuth, Microsoft Entra External ID, WorkOS AuthKit
DeepSeek V4 FlashFrontegg alternatives: Descope, Kinde, WorkOS AuthKit
Llama 4 MaverickAuth0 alternatives: IBM Verify, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, WSO2 Identity Server, WorkOS AuthKit
Neither was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5Auth0 alternatives: Frontegg, OneLogin, The OneWelcome Identity Platform
GPT-5.4 miniAuth0 alternatives: Frontegg, Ping Identity
Mistral SmallAuth0 alternatives: Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID
Qwen 3.7 FlashFrontegg alternatives: Auth0, Descope, Microsoft Entra External ID, Stytch
GLM 4.7 FlashXAuth0 alternatives: Amazon Cognito, Descope, Frontegg, Microsoft Entra External ID, Ping Identity, SSOJet, Stytch, Transmit Security
MiniMax M2.5OneLogin alternatives: Frontegg, LoginRadius, SSOJet
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Clerk leads by six points.
Clerk23%#1 of 15WorkOS AuthKit17%#2 of 15Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: WorkOS AuthKit leads at mid-market.
WorkOS AuthKit13%#2 of 16Clerk4%#6 of 16Enterprise
WorkOS AuthKit leads by two points.
WorkOS AuthKit2%#7 of 13Clerk0%#– of 13What the models said about WorkOS AuthKit
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“WorkOS documented a major service disruption on July 16, 2026 with elevated latency, timeouts, and 5xxs across AuthKit, SSO, and user-management flows.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“a massive drop in recommendation acceptance for platforms like WorkOS (falling from 22% to 4%)... such a sharp deviation warrants close scrutiny” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Modern developer-first options with good UX, but verify their long-term viability and security maturity” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“WorkOS stands out as the best customer identity and access management (CIAM) platform for most mid-market B2B companies” Grok 4.20 · direct prompt · first choice
“Best Overall for Modern B2B SaaS: WorkOS ... is often the top recommendation.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“WorkOS – *Best Overall for Enterprise Readiness & Developer Experience*” Gemini 3.5 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
What the models said about Clerk
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Clerk's own postmortems show that outages in one service can cascade into session-management downtime, and Clerk notes its session service incidents can cause "complete downtime" for customers.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“Clerk or similar developer-first tools as your only enterprise CIAM. Be cautious if you need mature consent management” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“Modern developer-first options with good UX, but verify their long-term viability and security maturity” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Clerk has become the go-to recommendation for modern startups building web apps” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“Best Overall Value: Clerk” Kimi K2 · budget prompt · first choice
“Developer‑centric teams building modern consumer apps favor Auth0, Clerk, Supabase Auth, Firebase Auth, Descope, Frontegg” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · alternative
Also compared
Auth0 vs WorkOS AuthKitAuth0 vs ClerkWorkOS AuthKit vs FronteggWorkOS AuthKit vs KindeWorkOS AuthKit vs FusionAuthWorkOS AuthKit vs KeycloakWorkOS AuthKit vs Firebase AuthenticationFrontegg vs ClerkKinde vs ClerkFusionAuth vs ClerkClerk vs KeycloakClerk vs Firebase AuthenticationAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full CIAM standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.