HonkIO Auth vs Clerk

• HonkIO Auth stores user data in Canada. Clerk hosts data on US infrastructure (Google Cloud and Cloudflare) and does not offer a choice of region.
• Clerk's free Hobby plan includes 50,000 monthly retained users per app. HonkIO Auth's Free plan includes 250 users per app.
• Passkeys and text-message codes are on Clerk's Pro and Business plans. On HonkIO Auth, passkeys are on every plan, and text codes are on Pro and Business.

HonkIO Auth is priced per app, per month, in CAD, and paid from the same prepaid balance as HonkIO's SMS and email: Free at $0 with 250 users, Pro at $49 with 2,500 users and then 2.5¢ each, and Business at $249 with 10,000 users and then 2¢ each. A user counts in a month only if they sign in on a day after the day they signed up, and likely bots never count. Sign-in emails and texts cost HonkIO's normal message rates, and passkey sign-ins are free.

Clerk's Hobby plan is free, with 50,000 monthly retained users per app. Pro is $25 a month ($20 billed annually) and Business $300 a month ($250 annually), each with 50,000 users per app included; Enterprise is custom and annual only. Above 50,000, each user costs $0.02 up to 100,000, $0.018 up to 1 million, $0.015 up to 10 million and $0.012 beyond.

Organizations are included on every plan: 100 monthly retained organizations per app, with up to 20 members each. Past 100 organizations, or for unlimited members, verified domains and custom roles, the enhanced B2B Authentication add-on is $100 a month ($85 a month billed annually), and organizations 101 to 1,000 cost $1 a month each. Text codes cost $0.01 per message to the US and Canada.

The two count users differently, so compare them with your own sign-in numbers rather than the headline prices.

HonkIO Auth stores your users' data in Canada: the database and cache are in Montréal, and sign-in emails go through AWS in Montréal (ca-central-1). Requests are processed on US-hosted infrastructure (Railway, US East), and Cloudflare ends TLS for sign-in hostnames as a processor without storing the traffic. So HonkIO says the data is stored in Canada, not that it never leaves Canada.

Clerk's security page says it doesn't offer regional data residency or a choice of region: data is hosted on US infrastructure (Google Cloud and Cloudflare), and its subprocessors are all in the USA. Clerk publishes its DPA, and has held SOC 2 Type 2 since May 6, 2022; the report is available on Business and above.

• You expect many users and want them free: Hobby includes 50,000 monthly retained users per app.
• You want organizations on every plan: Clerk includes them on Hobby too, while HonkIO Auth has organizations on Business.
• You need a SOC 2 Type 2 report from your provider: Clerk makes its report available on Business and above.
• You send sign-in texts to the United States: HonkIO Auth sends text codes to Canadian mobiles only.

When HonkIO Auth fits

• You want user data stored in Canada, in Montréal, for every app on every plan.
• You want passwordless sign-in only: email codes or links and passkeys on every plan, and text-message codes from your own Canadian number on Pro and Business.
• You want flat monthly fees in CAD, paid from the same prepaid balance as HonkIO's SMS and email, with users counted only when they come back on a later day.
• You want sign-in on your own domain on every plan, test apps included, and a hosted page in English and French.
• You want abuse protection on every plan: a self-hosted bot check with no third-party CAPTCHA, SMS pumping detection and a daily text spending limit.

HonkIO Auth uses the OpenID Connect authorization code flow with PKCE, so your app talks to it through an OIDC library you may already use, such as openid-client, Auth.js, Authlib or Socialite. Test apps are free, get every feature and send nothing.

• HonkIO Auth overview
• Next.js quickstart
• Plans and prices
• Where data is stored
• Sign-in methods
• Setting up your domain

Where does Clerk store user data?

As of October 2026, Clerk hosts data on US infrastructure (Google Cloud and Cloudflare) and doesn't offer regional data residency. HonkIO Auth stores user data in Canada, in Montréal, and processes requests on US-hosted infrastructure.

Does HonkIO Auth have a free plan like Clerk's Hobby plan?

Yes, a smaller one: HonkIO Auth's Free plan covers 250 users per app, with one live Free app per account, against 50,000 monthly retained users per app on Clerk Hobby. HonkIO Auth test apps are free and unlimited, with every feature, up to 100 users each.

Are passkeys on the free plan?

On HonkIO Auth, yes: passkeys are on every plan, and passkey sign-ins cost nothing. On Clerk, as of October 2026, passkeys are part of Pro and Business.

Can I move from Clerk to HonkIO Auth?

HonkIO Auth is standard OpenID Connect, so an app that signs in through an OIDC library mostly needs a new issuer, client ID and secret. Code written against a provider's own SDK needs replacing. Plan how existing users will sign in: HonkIO Auth has no passwords, so they use an email code or link, a passkey or, on Pro and Business, a text code.

Does HonkIO Auth support passwords or social login?

No. HonkIO Auth is passwordless only, and has no social login and no enterprise single sign-on (SAML) or SCIM. If you need those, it isn't the right fit today.

1. Clerk: pricing
2. Clerk: security
3. Clerk: data processing addendum

• HonkIO Auth comparisons

  HonkIO Auth compared with Auth0, Clerk, Amazon Cognito, Firebase Authentication and Stytch on data location, plans and sign-in methods.

• HonkIO Auth

  Hosted passwordless sign-in on your own domain, over standard OpenID Connect, with your users' data stored in Canada.

• HonkIO Auth vs Auth0

  HonkIO Auth and Auth0 side by side: Canada data regions, plans, custom domains, passkeys, MFA and organizations.

• HonkIO Auth vs Stytch

  HonkIO Auth and Stytch side by side: where user data is stored, plans, sign-in methods, passkeys, SSO and organizations.