--- title: "Descope vs theAuth: Descope Alternative for AI Agents" description: "Compare Descope Agentic Identity Hub and theAuth: both give AI agents identities and MCP OAuth 2.1, hosted or as an MIT library. Includes where Descope wins." canonical: https://theauth.dev/compare/descope/ lastmod: 2026-10-08 --- A self-hosted Descope alternative for AI agents # theAuth vs Descope Descope sells an Agentic Identity Hub with agent identities, MCP server authentication and managed connections to third-party services. theAuth covers agent identity and MCP authorization as an MIT library you run. Last verified: 2026-10-08. Hosted platform against an MIT library. [Get started](https://theauth.dev/get-started/) [Feature table](https://theauth.dev/compare/descope/#table) ## Short answer ### Choose Descope if - You want agents to call third-party services with managed credentials, using prebuilt connection templates, without storing those tokens yourself. - You want a vendor to run MCP server authentication, client registration and consent. - You want enterprise customers to manage agent permissions from their own identity provider (Cross-App Access). ### Choose theAuth if - You need to self-host, or keep tokens, sessions and audit data in your own database. - You want agent identity, delegation chains with depth limits, budgets and approval gates in the same library as human sign-in. - You want the authorization server in your own repository, readable and forkable under MIT. Descope is the closest hosted match to what theAuth does for agents. Its distinct strength is managed outbound connections, which theAuth does not offer. ## theAuth vs Descope feature comparison Feature comparison of Descope and theAuth | Feature | Descope | theAuth | | --- | --- | --- | | Self-hostable | Partial or different, Sold as plans with a free tier; no self-hosting option found in the pages we checked | Yes, Yes, on your own database | | Dedicated identities for agents | Yes, Yes, with attributes for users, tenants and tool scopes | Yes, Yes, with owner, type and token | | MCP server authentication | Yes, Yes, OAuth 2.1, client registration and consent | Yes, Yes, built in | | Access policies per tool | Yes, Per tool, tenant and MCP server | Yes, Wildcard permission patterns, constraints, policy engine | | Audit of agent actions | Yes, Yes, linked to the delegating user | Yes, Yes, every decision, JSON or CSV export | | Managed credentials for third-party APIs | Yes, Yes, 50+ templates plus OAuth and API key setups | No, Not offered; you hold those tokens | | Delegation chains with a depth cap | Partial or different, Not found in the pages we checked | Yes, Yes, default maximum depth of 3 | Check mark: yes. Dash: partial, different, or not found in the docs we checked. Cross: no. Claims about Descope are from its own public pages (see Sources). theAuth rows are from its repositories. 01 ## Agent identity Both treat the agent as a first-class thing. Descope Descope's Agentic Identity Hub gives agents dedicated identities with attributes such as associated users, tenants and tool-level scopes. It issues short-lived, scoped credentials, applies access policies per tool, tenant and MCP server, and logs agent actions against the delegating user. theAuth theAuth gives each agent an owner, a kv_... bearer token (only a hash is stored), wildcard permissions with constraints, delegation chains that can only narrow permissions, and budget policies per agent. See [agent identity](https://theauth.dev/agent-identity/). 02 ## Calling other services as the user Where Descope is ahead. Descope Descope documents managed connections to downstream services with more than 50 prebuilt templates, plus plain OAuth and API key setups, so an agent can call those services without you storing the tokens. theAuth theAuth does not run an outbound token vault. It authorizes what an agent may do inside your system and issues tokens for your own resources. If your agents mainly call Google, Slack or Jira on behalf of users, that is a reason to look at Descope or Auth0 Token Vault. 03 ## Operations and billing Plans and meters, or a library. Descope Descope has a free tier and paid plans with usage-based overages that meter things such as monthly active users, tenants and M2M token exchanges. Check its pricing page for current limits. theAuth The library is free under MIT. You run the database and compute. theAuth Cloud is in early access with no published prices. ## Descope alternative: common questions **Is theAuth a Descope alternative for AI agents?** For agent identity and MCP authorization, yes. Both give agents identities and protect MCP servers with OAuth 2.1. The differences are hosted versus self-hosted, and that Descope also offers managed credentials for third-party services, which theAuth does not. **Does Descope support MCP?** Yes. Descope documents MCP server authentication with OAuth 2.1, client registration and consent flows, as part of its Agentic Identity Hub. **Can I self-host Descope?** We found no self-hosting option in the pages we checked. theAuth is MIT licensed and runs on your own database. **Where is Descope the better choice?** When agents mainly call third-party APIs for users and you want a vendor to hold those credentials, or when enterprise customers should govern agent permissions from their own identity provider. ## Sources Last verified: 2026-10-08. Competitor facts come from the public pages below. Plans, limits and prices change, so confirm there. The Descope pages we checked did not state whether it can be self-hosted, so that row says only what we did not find. - [Descope: AI and agentic identity](https://www.descope.com/use-cases/ai) www.descope.com/use-cases/ai - [Descope pricing](https://www.descope.com/pricing) www.descope.com/pricing - [theAuth repository and README](https://github.com/glincker/theauth) github.com/glincker/theauth - [theauth-go repository and README](https://github.com/glincker/theauth-go) github.com/glincker/theauth-go ## Keep reading [All comparisons](https://theauth.dev/compare/) [Get started](https://theauth.dev/get-started/) [MCP OAuth 2.1](https://theauth.dev/mcp-oauth/) [Agent identity](https://theauth.dev/agent-identity/) [Guides](https://theauth.dev/guides/)