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Hanko vs Kinde

Kinde scores higher on the AgentReady, 54/100 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

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

Kinde. Modern auth and billing for engineers.

Where Hanko is ahead

Hanko passes fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official typescript sdk and official python sdk, and Kinde does not. That is adopt, whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop.

It also holds operate: structured, predictable output. Kinde misses it.

Where Kinde is ahead

Kinde 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 and mcp integration available. Hanko misses those.

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, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, cli available, 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 is whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists. Kinde leads 100 to 73. Hanko misses clear product positioning, mcp discoverable; Kinde misses nothing.

Understand. Kinde leads 31 to 23. Hanko misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, authentication documented, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented; Kinde misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented, limits / constraints documented.

Adopt. Hanko leads 50 to 48. Hanko misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, cli available, mcp integration available; Kinde misses agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, fast time to first request, copyable quickstart, official typescript sdk, official python sdk, cli available.

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

Pricing

Hanko starts at $29/month and has a free tier. Kinde starts at $25/mo and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

Signal counts are level here, so fit and price decide it. Full profiles: Hanko and Kinde. Alternatives to each: Hanko, Kinde.

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