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 to apply them.

API Route

Mount Better Auth's handler at /api/auth/[...all]/route.ts:

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";
import { toNextJsHandler } from "better-auth/next-js";

export const { GET, POST } = toNextJsHandler(auth);

Client Helper

Create a client for your components:

import { createAuthClient } from "better-auth/react";

export const authClient = createAuthClient();
export const { signIn, signUp, signOut, useSession } = authClient;

Using It

"use client";
import { useSession, signIn, signOut } from "@/lib/auth-client";

export function UserMenu() {
  const { data: session } = useSession();

  if (!session?.user) {
    return <button onClick={() => signIn.email({ email, password })}>Sign in</button>;
  }

  return (
    <div>
      <span>{session.user.name}</span>
      <button onClick={() => signOut()}>Sign out</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Server-Side Session

For Server Components or Server Actions, create a helper:

import { auth } from "@/lib/auth";
import { headers } from "next/headers";

export async function getServerSession() {
  return await auth.api.getSession({ headers: await headers() });
}

export async function requireSession() {
  const session = await getServerSession();
  if (!session?.user) throw new Error("Unauthorized");
  return session;
}

That's it. You now have email/password, Google OAuth, and database-backed sessions.