HelloJohn Documentation
The open-source auth platform for developers. Self-hosted or managed cloud. Multi-tenant, 7 SDKs, WebAuthn, RBAC — auth in 5 lines.
What is HelloJohn?
HelloJohn is an open-source identity and authentication platform built for developer teams. You get full-stack auth — sign up, sign in, sessions, MFA, organizations, RBAC, and webhooks — without building it yourself.
Deploy it on your own infrastructure (OSS) or use the managed cloud. Either way, you own your data.
Ship faster with HelloJohn
Use quickstarts and copy-paste snippets to get auth running in minutes, then scale to production with multi-tenant controls, MFA, and audit-ready security.
Choose your path
Quickstart: React
Add auth to your React app in 10 minutes.
Quickstart: Next.js
App Router, middleware, and Server Components.
Self-Hosting Guide
Deploy HelloJohn OSS on your own infrastructure.
API Reference
Full REST API reference for all endpoints.
What HelloJohn handles for you
- Authentication — Email/password, magic links, OAuth (Google, GitHub, Apple, Microsoft, and more)
- Sessions — Access tokens, refresh tokens, multi-device, idle and absolute timeouts
- MFA — TOTP, SMS OTP, email OTP, WebAuthn/passkeys, backup codes
- Organizations — Teams, roles, invitations, permissions, organization switching
- RBAC — Built-in roles, custom roles, permission checks in backend and frontend
- Webhooks — Real-time events for every user and session action
- SDKs — React, Vue, Next.js, React Native, Node.js, Go, Python, JavaScript
OSS vs Cloud
| OSS (Self-hosted) | Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (your infra) | Free tier + paid plans |
| Data ownership | 100% yours | Hosted by HelloJohn |
| Setup | Docker / Kubernetes | No setup needed |
| Multi-tenant | Single tenant | Unlimited tenants |
| SAML SSO | ❌ | ✅ Enterprise |