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Hanko vs Propelauth

Propelauth scores higher on the AgentReady, 59/100 against 48/100. They differ on 11 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.

Propelauth. PropelAuth provides end-to-end managed user authentication specializing in B2B use cases, built for AI-native companies with multi-tenant auth requirements

Where Hanko is ahead

Hanko passes clear canonical domain, llms.txt published and llms-full.txt / full agent docs, and Propelauth does not. That is discover, whether an agent can find the product at all without being told it exists.

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

Where Propelauth is ahead

Propelauth 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 and limits / constraints documented. Hanko misses those.

And on adopt, agent-compatible signup flow, cli available 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, no mandatory sales call, 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. Propelauth leads 80 to 73. Hanko misses clear product positioning, mcp discoverable; Propelauth misses clear canonical domain, llms.txt published, llms-full.txt / full agent docs.

Understand. Propelauth leads 38 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; Propelauth misses structured api reference, openapi / spec quality, request examples provided, response examples provided, errors and status codes documented.

Adopt is whether an agent can get a key and make its first successful call without a human in the loop. Propelauth leads 80 to 50. Hanko misses no mandatory sales call, agent-compatible signup flow, programmatic credential creation, cli available, mcp integration available; Propelauth misses no mandatory sales call, programmatic credential creation.

Operate. Hanko leads 47 to 39. Hanko misses machine-readable errors, retry behavior documented, idempotency support, rate-limit behavior predictable, agent compatibility verified; Propelauth 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. Propelauth starts at $0/month and has a free tier.

Signal by signal

Which to pick

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

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