Compare the best free and open-source alternatives to AWS Cognito — self-hosted and desktop replacements you fully control, ranked by GitHub stars, license and platform support.
Curated by open-source.store · Updated November 2026 · 8 alternatives
| Tool | License | Platforms | Self-hosted | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,575 | MIT | Web | No | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 14,841 | MPL-2.0 | DockerLinux | Yes | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 9,061 | AGPL-3.0 | DockerLinux | Yes | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 6,884 | — | DockerLinux | Yes | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 5,968 | AGPL-3.0 | Web | No | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 4,644 | Apache-2.0 | Web | No | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 2,140 | Apache-2.0 | DockerLinux | Yes | Nov 2026 | Visit | |
| 1,140 | MIT | Web | No | Feb 2026 | Visit |
Better Auth replaces Clerk with a self-hosted TypeScript authentication framework featuring native database adapters, plugins, and full schema ownership.
vs AWS Cognito: a free, open-source option you fully control, licensed MIT.

Stack Auth is an open-source alternative to Clerk and Auth0 that runs via Docker, giving teams total control over user data and Postgres storage.
vs AWS Cognito: a free, open-source option you fully control.