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Descope vs Hanko

Descope scores higher on the AgentReady, 61/100 against 48/100. They differ on 10 of the 41 signals. Which ones decides whether an agent can adopt them without a person watching.

What each one is

Descope. Descope is a passwordless authentication and user management service designed for developers.

Hanko. Hanko is an open-source authentication and user management platform for modern web and mobile apps.

Where Descope is ahead

Descope passes clear product positioning and mcp discoverable, and Hanko does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

It also holds understand: authentication documented. Hanko misses it.

And on adopt, no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, cli available and mcp integration available. Hanko misses those.

Where Hanko is ahead

Hanko passes pricing understandable, and Descope does not. That is understand, whether an agent can read the docs and work out how the API behaves before calling it.

It also holds adopt: free trial or free allowance. Descope misses it.

And on operate, structured, predictable output. Descope misses it.

What neither does

Both fail structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented, programmatic credential creation, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified. If your agent needs any of those, you will be building it yourself either way.

Score, pillar by pillar

The AgentReady splits into four pillars, scored separately, because a product can be easy to find and still impossible to adopt.

Discover. Descope leads 100 to 73. Descope misses nothing; Hanko misses clear product positioning, mcp discoverable.

Understand. Both sit at 23/100 here. Descope misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, pricing understandable, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Hanko misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt is whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop. Descope leads 85 to 50. Descope misses programmatic credential creation, free trial or free allowance; Hanko misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, cli available, mcp integration available.

Operate. Hanko leads 47 to 35. Descope misses structured, predictable output, machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified; Hanko misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified.

Pricing

Descope does not publish a machine-readable starting price. Hanko starts at $29/month and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Descope clears more of the signals an agent needs, so it is the safer default for unattended use. Full profiles: Descope and Hanko. Alternatives to each: Descope, Hanko.

An agent can fetch this as data: POST /v1/compare {"slugs": ["descope", "hanko"]}