Self-Hosted Auth

[OSS GAP] Self-Hosted Auth #auth #self-hosted #too-expensive #dx

Pain: Small SaaS teams want modern auth, orgs, and sessions without getting pushed into Auth0 or Clerk pricing before they have revenue. “I got tired of setting up auth for every ASP.NET project (JWT, refresh tokens, Google login, etc.), and most options felt either too heavy or SaaS-only. So I built a small self-hos” — reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/csharp/comments/1shs8ve/selfhosted_auth_lib_for_net/)

Why now: Small teams in 2026 are cutting tool spend and refusing extra platform debt. Auth0, Clerk, Stytch are strong products, but they are packaged for bigger companies than small SaaS and other small teams. That makes a smaller, self-hosted wedge in self-hosted auth unusually easy to explain.

Tiny wedge: User directory for small SaaS and other small teams without Auth0-style pricing and platform weight.

Why this wins: Replaces recurring Auth0 spend with a boring self-hosted alternative for small SaaS and other small teams.

Scope cut: Skip workforce IAM and fine-grained enterprise governance in v1.

Stack: Node.js + Express + PostgreSQL + Web Components + REST API + webhooks + OIDC/session auth.