Supabase Auth vs Hanko for Solo Developers

Passwordless authentication is no longer a niche trend. Users expect magic links, passkeys, and social logins. Both Supabase Auth and Hanko deliver modern authentication, but they take very different approaches. For solo developers, understanding these differences can save weeks of integration work.

Supabase Auth Overview

Supabase Auth is the authentication module within the Supabase platform. It provides email/password, magic links, phone OTP, and OAuth with over 20 social providers out of the box. Everything ties directly into your Supabase Postgres database, which means your auth users and app data live in the same place.

The real power for solo developers is row-level security. You write Postgres policies that reference auth.uid(), and your database enforces access rules without any application code. The free tier supports 50,000 monthly active users, and the JavaScript SDK makes integration a few lines of code.

Supabase Auth is not just an auth service. It is part of a full backend-as-a-service that includes database, storage, edge functions, and realtime subscriptions. If you are using Supabase for anything else, auth is essentially free to add.

Hanko Overview

Hanko is an open-source authentication solution built specifically around passkeys and passwordless flows. It positions itself as a modern alternative to traditional auth, putting WebAuthn and passkeys at the center of the experience rather than treating them as an add-on.

Hanko provides drop-in web components (<hanko-auth> and <hanko-profile>) that render a complete login and registration UI. You embed them in your frontend and they handle the entire flow, including passkey registration, email passcodes, and OAuth. The backend runs as a standalone service (Go binary or Docker container) with its own user store.

The Hanko Cloud managed service offers a free tier with 10,000 monthly active users. Self-hosting is fully supported and gives you unlimited users. The focus on passkeys means Hanko is betting on the future of authentication, where passwords become optional or disappear entirely.

Comparison Table

When to Pick Supabase Auth

Supabase Auth is the right choice when you want authentication as part of a broader backend solution:

• You are already using Supabase for your database or plan to.
• You want row-level security policies for authorization without writing middleware.
• Your app needs phone authentication or a wide range of OAuth providers.
• You prefer building your own login UI using SDK methods rather than drop-in components.
• The broader Supabase ecosystem (storage, edge functions, realtime) adds value to your project.

Supabase Auth is battle-tested across thousands of production apps. The community is large, tutorials are plentiful, and you are unlikely to hit an edge case that nobody has solved before.

When to Pick Hanko

Hanko makes sense when passkeys and passwordless auth are central to your product vision:

• You want to offer a truly modern, passwordless-first experience.
• Drop-in web components for login and profile management save you from building UI.
• You want a lightweight, standalone auth service without buying into a full BaaS.
• Self-hosting a single Go binary is appealing compared to managing a larger platform.
• You are building for a future where passkeys replace passwords entirely.

Hanko is also a strong pick if you want to keep your architecture modular. It does one thing (authentication) and does it well, without coupling you to a specific database or backend framework.

Verdict

For most solo developers building a standard web or mobile app, Supabase Auth is the safer bet. The ecosystem integration, generous free tier, and proven track record make it the path of least resistance. You get auth that works out of the box alongside your database, storage, and everything else.

Hanko is the pick for developers who care deeply about passkeys and passwordless UX. If you believe passwords are going away and you want your app to lead that transition, Hanko is purpose-built for that future. The drop-in components are genuinely useful, and the self-hosted experience is lighter than most alternatives. Just be aware that the ecosystem is younger and the community is smaller, so you may find yourself reading source code instead of Stack Overflow answers when things get tricky.