💭 Why Clerk for auth?

On a high level, clerk promises an overall user management solution instead of just authentication with things like the User Profile, Banning and Device management built-in. In practice I've personally had an great time using Clerk for Expo projects compared to other solutions like Firebase or Supabase auth for my projects.

Practical things I like about Clerk

• Really nice hooks & components (SignedIn/SignedOut) that work for both Expo and NextJS.
• SDKs for all 3 platforms: Expo frontend, NextJS frontend, NextJS serverside.
• Fantastic support and help from their team (from personal experience).

Downsides

• Doesn't do SMS unless you pay: big negative for mobile but makes up for it with easy oauth.
• Premium plan expensive compared to the alternatives.
• Double edged sword of being a startup.