00/kavachOS vs Auth0
Nobody wakes up wanting to migrate auth. You do it because the pricing page surprised you, or because your AI feature needs a primitive Auth0 doesn't ship. kavachOS is MIT, edge-native, and quotes the full number up front. Here's the side-by-side.
01/Why people land on this page
Auth0's free tier caps at 7,500 MAU. The Essential plan starts at $240 a month at 10,000 MAU, and Organizations, M2M, and breach detection are billed on top. The cliff shows up the first quarter you grow.
The per-MAU line scales faster than revenue
Essential is $0.024 per extra MAU, Professional is $0.080. A B2B product with a self-serve tier can hit $800 a month before the enterprise deal that was supposed to pay for it closes.
Agents and MCP tools have no primitive
If you ship an AI feature, each agent needs its own identity, not a shared API key. Auth0 has no agent token, no delegation chain, no MCP OAuth 2.1 authorization server.
Cloud-only. No self-host option.
Some buyers need the auth layer inside their VPC. Auth0 does not self-host, so the answer is always 'no'. kavachOS runs anywhere Node runs, and the cloud option is a choice, not a requirement.
02/Where they beat us
If any of these matter more than the reasons above, stay on Auth0. The migration will still be here when the trade-off flips.
Auth0 is better at
Auth0 has SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and FedRAMP already filed. If your buyer's security questionnaire lists those by name with a date, Auth0 ships a satisfying answer today. kavachOS is targeting Type I at launch and Type II a year later.
Auth0 is better at
Auth0 has been tested against hundreds of SAML and OIDC identity providers for over a decade. The long tail of IdP quirks is handled. kavachOS covers the common IdPs but the matrix is smaller by definition.
Auth0 is better at
Auth0's hosted login page is polished and battle-tested. If you need hosted, branded, fully compliant auth UI without writing any UI code yourself, Auth0 ships that faster than anyone.
03/Side by side
No checkmark theater. Each row is a value you can verify against the public docs on either side.
Row
kavachOS
Auth0
Starting price
Auth0 free tier excludes custom domains and most enterprise features.
Price at 10,000 MAU
Auth0 Professional is $800 at the same MAU if you need M2M or advanced RBAC.
Open source license
Self-host option
Billing shape
Agent identity primitive
MCP OAuth 2.1 server
M2M tokens included
SCIM provisioning
Cloudflare Workers runtime
Bcrypt password migration
04/Pricing
Everyone argues about pricing in the abstract. Pick the MAU count that matches next quarter and compare the two columns. Ignore the rest.
Auth0
Per-MAU tiers with add-ons for Organizations, M2M, and enterprise features. The price you click is usually not the price you pay.
Free
7,500 MAU
No custom domains, limited features.
$0
Essential
10,000 MAU
+$0.024 per extra MAU. No M2M included.
$240 / mo
Professional
10,000 MAU
+$0.080 per extra MAU. M2M included.
$800 / mo
Enterprise
SCIM, advanced security, SLA. Annual contract.
Custom
kavachOS
Flat monthly tiers. Agent identity, M2M, organizations, and SSO come with the plan, not on top of it.
Free
1,000 MAU
Full features, no credit card.
$0
Starter
10,000 MAU
Agent identity and M2M included.
$29 / mo
Growth
50,000 MAU
SSO, SCIM, priority support.
$79 / mo
Scale
200,000 MAU
SLA, dedicated support.
$199 / mo
Enterprise
Self-host assist, custom terms.
Custom
05/Migration
Before · Next.js with Auth0
// middleware.ts
import { withMiddlewareAuthRequired } from "@auth0/nextjs-auth0/edge";
export default withMiddlewareAuthRequired();
// app/api/me/route.ts
import { getSession } from "@auth0/nextjs-auth0";
export async function GET() {
const session = await getSession();
if (!session?.user) return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
return Response.json({ user: session.user });
}After · Next.js with kavachOS
// middleware.ts
import { kavachosMiddleware } from "kavachos/next";
export default kavachosMiddleware();
// app/api/me/route.ts
import { auth } from "kavachos/next";
export async function GET() {
const session = await auth();
if (!session?.user) return new Response("Unauthorized", { status: 401 });
return Response.json({ user: session.user });
}Export
Swap
Env
Connections
Verify
06/Decide in thirty seconds
Stay on Auth0
Switch to kavachOS
07/FAQ
Short answers. Link to the docs if the long version matters.
Try the port on a branch. Small diff. Evidence beats a pitch.
The library is MIT. Install it, run kavachos migrate verify against an Auth0 export, push a branch, and show the diff to your team. If the savings and the agent primitives are worth the switch, finish it. If not, stay. We'll be here.