Setting Up Better Auth in 10 Minutes

Why Better Auth

Better Auth is a fresh take on auth for TypeScript apps. It's unopinionated about your database, supports multiple providers out of the box, and doesn't lock you into a hosted service. If you want to own your auth layer, this is a great starting point.

Install

npm install better-auth

Server Config

Create src/lib/auth.ts. This is where you wire Better Auth to your database and enable providers.

import { betterAuth } from "better-auth";
import { prismaAdapter } from "better-auth/adapters/prisma";
import { nextCookies } from "better-auth/next-js";
import { prisma } from "./prisma";

export const auth = betterAuth({
  database: prismaAdapter(prisma, { provider: "postgresql" }),
  emailAndPassword: {
    enabled: true,
  },
  socialProviders: {
    google: {
      clientId: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID!,
      clientSecret: process.env.GOOGLE_CLIENT_SECRET!,
    },
  },
  plugins: [nextCookies()],
});

Database Schema

Better Auth stores sessions in your database — not JWTs. Add the required models to your Prisma schema:

model User {
  id            String    @id @default(cuid())
  name          String
  email         String    @unique
  emailVerified Boolean   @default(false)
  sessions      Session[]
  accounts      Account[]
}

model Session {
  id        String   @id @default(cuid())
  token     String   @unique
  expiresAt DateTime
  userId    String
  user      User     @relation(fields: [userId], references: [id], onDelete: Cascade)
}

model Account {
  id         String @id @default(cuid())
  userId     String
  providerId String
  accountId  String
  user       User   @relation(fields: [userId], references: [id], onDelete: Cascade)
}

Run npx prisma migrate dev