Our take
Pick Descope if saaS teams who will stay on Free Forever at $0 (7,500 MAUs, 10 tenants, 3 SSO, no watermark) while they ship a first Sign Up or In Flow, then buy Pro at $249/month billed annually when they need a custom domain and 10,000 MAUs. Pick FusionAuth if app teams who will stay on Community at $0 (self-host, unlimited MAUs, forum support) while they open a first Users table, then buy Starter at $162/month
hosted visual-auth-flow desk
auth admin desk
Best for
Descope Sign-in journeys you draw at $0
FusionAuth Users you start at $0
Free plan
Descope $0 · 7,500 MAUs. 10 monthly active tenants. 3 SSO connections. 1 federated OIDC app. 5 test users. 10,000 M2M exchanges. 2,000 MACs / 2,000 MATKs. All auth methods, RBAC, MFA, sessions, widgets, connectors, no watermark, community support, 99% SLA. No overages — upgrade required to exceed limits
FusionAuth $0 · self-hosted. Unlimited. Core authentication. Community support (forums, GitHub). Passkeys / biometrics need a Free License. No FusionAuth Cloud hosting on this card
Lowest paid
Descope Pro $249/mo yearly
FusionAuth Essentials $2/mo
Next step up
Descope Growth $799/mo yearly
FusionAuth Starter $162/mo yearly
Runs where
Descope Hosted
FusionAuth Local or hosted
Watch out
Descope Pro $249 is billed annually
FusionAuth $162 / $2,970 are the 1,000-MAU tiles
Last checked
Descope 2026-10-23 · descope.com/pricing
FusionAuth 2026-10-23 · fusionauth.io/pricing
saaS teams who will stay on Free Forever at $0 (7,500 MAUs, 10 tenants, 3 SSO, no watermark) while they ship a first Sign Up or In Flow, then buy Pro at $249/month billed annually when they need a custom domain and 10,000 MAUs.
Read the Descope pageapp teams who will stay on Community at $0 (self-host, unlimited MAUs, forum support) while they open a first Users table, then buy Starter at $162/month billed annually (1,000 MAU slider) when they need Cloud hosting, advanced MFA, and application themes.
Read the FusionAuth page