Stytch vs WorkOS(2026)
Stytch is better for teams that need best passwordless ux. WorkOS is the stronger choice if free up to 1m mau. Stytch is freemium (from $249/month) and WorkOS is freemium (from $0 (free up to 1M MAU)).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
By Bikram NathLast updated
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Stytch
Stytch provides authentication APIs with a focus on passwordless flows: magic links, OTP, passkeys, and biometrics.
Starting at $249/month
Visit StytchWorkOS
WorkOS provides enterprise-ready authentication APIs — SSO (SAML), SCIM, and Admin Portal in days, not months.
Starting at $0 (free up to 1M MAU)
Visit WorkOSHow Do Stytch and WorkOS Compare on Features?
| Feature | Stytch | WorkOS |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting price | $249/month | $0 (free up to 1M MAU) |
| Magic links | ✓ | — |
| OTP | ✓ | — |
| Passkeys | ✓ | — |
| OAuth | ✓ | — |
| Session management | ✓ | — |
| Fraud detection | ✓ | — |
| B2B auth | ✓ | — |
| SAML SSO | — | ✓ |
| SCIM provisioning | — | ✓ |
| Admin Portal | — | ✓ |
| Directory Sync | — | ✓ |
| MFA | — | ✓ |
| AuthKit | — | ✓ |
Stytch Pros and Cons vs WorkOS
Stytch
WorkOS
Deep dive: Stytch
When to choose Stytch
Stytch is the clear winner if passwordless authentication is your core UX—magic links, OTP, passkeys, and biometrics are exceptionally well-executed. Choose Stytch if you're building for security-conscious users (finance, healthcare) where fraud detection and phone verification matter. Stytch also wins for B2B SaaS with both consumer and enterprise users; their B2B SSO APIs bridge both worlds. Pick Stytch if you want passwordless without building custom logic; their fraud detection (impossible travel, device fingerprinting, geofencing) is production-hardened. Don't choose Stytch for cost-sensitive startups—the $249/month minimum is steep for <10k users, working out to ~$0.025 per user (vs. Auth0's $0.00092 per user). Stytch is also wrong if you need extensive community content or third-party integrations; they're newer and less documented than Auth0/Clerk. Skip Stytch if you're building simple password-based login—you're paying for passwordless features you won't use. Also avoid if you need transparent pricing; their enterprise tiers are opaque, and contacting sales for >100k MAU feels like a trap to upsell you to a $10k+ plan.
Real-world use case
A fintech startup (Series A, 80k users) chose Stytch for passwordless because fraud was a top risk. They implemented magic link login (no passwords to leak) and step-up authentication for sensitive actions (transfers). Monthly cost: $249 (entry tier), scaling to $899 by month 8 at 80k MAU. The fraud detection flagged 340 suspicious logins/month—geofencing caught users logging in from impossible locations. One attack: a credential-stuffed email tried to log in from 5 countries in 2 hours; Stytch's device fingerprinting blocked it. They calculated that preventing 3 fraud cases (average $8k loss each) paid for Stytch's annual cost ($10,788). Passkey support (WebAuthn) meant Mac/iPhone users could auth with Face ID—conversion rate jumped 12% for that segment. The tradeoff: SMS OTP delivery sometimes took 30 seconds (carrier latency), making the UX feel slow for users in rural areas. Passkey browser support wasn't 100% (older Android devices failed silently), so they kept magic links as a fallback, doubling the auth complexity. Engineering overhead: 60 hours to integrate fraud rules and handle the fallback flows.
Hidden gotchas
Stytch's fraud detection is powerful but requires tuning—default rules are lenient and catch <50% of attacks. The docs don't explain how to interpret risk scores or set thresholds; you'll find yourself in Slack threads asking how to configure rules properly. Another gotcha: SMS delivery isn't guaranteed—carrier failures are common, and Stytch doesn't auto-retry; you have to handle retries in your app. Passkey adoption is slower than Stytch implies; browser support for WebAuthn is still patchy (Windows Hello is good, Android is bad), and many users will abandon passwordless and fall back to passwords (making integration more complex). Their pricing tier system has a gotcha: MAU is calculated as monthly active users, but Stytch counts 'active' as any user who touches your API (even if they just checked their profile). A data science tool once hit a $3k overage bill after a data export job accidentally polled user endpoints for 500k users, marking them all as 'active' in a single month. Webhooks for fraud events are documented but unreliable—delivery isn't guaranteed, and if you miss an event, there's no replay mechanism; you'll have to query the API manually. Session handling with passkeys also has quirks—some browsers cache biometric auth for 24 hours, others re-prompt every time, and Stytch's docs don't explain why or how to control this. Finally, enterprise SSO pricing is hidden; if you need SAML/OIDC alongside passwordless, the cost jumps substantially, and the package deal isn't listed until you talk to sales.
Pricing breakdown
Stytch's free tier includes 25 MAO (Monthly Active Organizations) and 1,000 members per organization for B2B, or 10,000 MAU for consumer. The Growth plan starts at $249/mo with higher limits. Enterprise is custom. For B2B authentication (SSO, SCIM, Organizations), Stytch is priced per organization: ~$3-5/mo per active organization on Growth plans. Consumer auth (magic links, OTP, passwords) scales at $0.01-0.03 per MAU beyond included limits. The cost advantage: pre-built UI components save 4-8 weeks of frontend development. The limitation: newer product means fewer community resources and smaller plugin ecosystem.
Deep dive: WorkOS
When to choose WorkOS
WorkOS is the clear winner for B2B SaaS launching enterprise features fast. If your target customer is a company (not individuals), and they demand SAML/SSO or SCIM directory sync, WorkOS gets you there in days, not months. The free tier covers 1M MAU, so you can launch without touching Stripe until you have real traction. Pick WorkOS if you need Admin Portal out-of-the-box—users can manage their own SSO settings without you writing a single dashboard page. Also choose WorkOS if you're building for regulated industries (healthcare, finance) where audit trails and SCIM compliance matter; their documentation is designed for compliance teams. Don't pick WorkOS for consumer apps, social login flows, or passwordless—they're purposefully omitted. WorkOS is also wrong if you need deep customization of the login experience; their UI is locked down by design to be enterprise-safe, not flashy. Skip it if you're already all-in on Auth0 ecosystems or need extensive community content and third-party integrations.
Real-world use case
A B2B SaaS founder with a $500k ARR baseline launched WorkOS in Week 1 to close enterprise deals. Two customers were asking for SAML; WorkOS closed that gap in 4 hours (vs. estimated 6 weeks to build). Monthly cost: $0 (under 1M MAU). The Admin Portal meant customers could self-manage SAML settings—reducing support tickets by 30 hours/month. One customer with 500 employees used SCIM to auto-provision accounts from Okta; WorkOS handled the directory sync without additional engineering. The co-founder spent 16 hours total on integration—mostly reading docs, not debugging. By month 4, they'd signed 3 enterprise deals ($80k ACV each) that required SSO. The financial outcome: $240k in incremental ARR from enterprise customers, with zero additional engineering headcount. The tradeoff: they lost flexibility—couldn't customize the login UI or add custom SAML attribute mapping. One customer asked for LDAP support; WorkOS doesn't offer it, and they had to decline the deal.
Hidden gotchas
WorkOS's Admin Portal looks great but has severe UX gaps. Enterprise customers trying to configure SAML often hit a cryptic 'Assertion not valid' error—the problem is buried in XML namespace mismatches, not documented anywhere in the UI. SCIM implementation has quirks: if a customer deletes a user in Okta, WorkOS doesn't automatically deprovision them from your app—you have to build the webhook handler and logic to match their behavior. The documentation assumes you've read SCIM specs (you probably haven't), so setup times double. Another trap: WorkOS bills on *unique* MAU monthly, meaning if you have 500k users and 2M logins, you're charged for 500k. But if you delete a user and re-import them next month, they're double-counted. A startup once hit a $10k surprise bill after a data migration script accidentally re-created 300k users. Enterprise pricing (for >1M MAU) is not publicly listed and requires sales calls—many founders hit this wall and discover their free-tier advantage evaporates. SSO session timeouts are also a gotcha: the default 24-hour session means enterprise users logging in the morning might be logged out by evening, which is not typical for enterprise apps. Finally, their API rate limits (1000 req/min) aren't well-advertised; a sync job pulling user metadata for 500k accounts might hit the limit and silently drop requests.
Pricing breakdown
WorkOS pricing is usage-based: User Management is free up to 1M MAU. SSO connections cost $125/mo per connection. Directory Sync is $125/mo per directory. SCIM provisioning is included with Directory Sync. The User Management free tier is the most generous in the auth space — no per-MAU fees at any scale. The cost for enterprise features is per-customer: if 5 enterprise customers need SSO, that is $625/mo. For a B2B SaaS adding enterprise auth, budget $125-500/mo per enterprise customer. The value: WorkOS abstracts SAML/OIDC complexity into a single API, saving 2-4 weeks of engineering time per SSO integration.
Should You Use Stytch or WorkOS?
For most teams, Stytch is the better default: it offers best passwordless ux and is freemium (from $249/month). Choose WorkOS instead if free up to 1m mau matters more than expensive for small teams. There is no universal winner — the right pick depends on your budget, team size, and whether you value best passwordless ux or free up to 1m mau more.
Choose Stytch if…
- •Best passwordless UX
- •Fraud detection built-in
- •B2B SSO support
Choose WorkOS if…
- •Free up to 1M MAU
- •Best enterprise SSO DX
- •Admin Portal included