Revolutionizing User Authentication: The Story of Bereket Engida and Better Auth

It’s not often that you come across a solo founder creating a developer infrastructure tool that gains widespread adoption. It’s even more rare when that founder hails from Africa. Meet Bereket Engida, a self-taught programmer from Ethiopia, who is quietly making waves with what many developers are calling the best authentication tool they’ve ever used.

Engida’s brainchild, Better Auth, offers an open-source framework designed to simplify how developers handle user authentication. This innovative solution has caught the attention of prominent investors, with the startup recently securing $5 million in seed funding from Peak XV (formerly Sequoia India & Southeast Asia), Y Combinator, P1 Ventures, and Chapter One.

What sets Better Auth apart is not just its impressive investor lineup but the fact that Engida developed the entire product in Ethiopia before venturing to the U.S.

Engida’s journey into programming began at the age of 18 when he embarked on building an e-commerce search app after a friend declined to assist him. This initial project led him to secure remote software jobs and ultimately create a web analytics platform for monitoring user behavior on websites.

Throughout his career, Engida repeatedly encountered a common challenge: authentication. Managing user sign-ins, password resets, and permissions proved to be a recurring pain point for many developers. Existing tools like Auth0, Firebase, and NextAuth fell short in terms of flexibility, customization, and scalability, prompting Engida to seek a better solution.

His quest for a more robust authentication framework led him to develop Better Auth, a TypeScript-based library that empowers developers to access user data through open-source libraries, supports various permissions use cases out of the box, and scales seamlessly with plug-ins.

One of the key selling points of Better Auth is its simplicity and efficiency. Developers can integrate the library directly into their codebase, maintaining user data on-premise in their databases. This feature appeals to companies concerned about entrusting critical user information to third-party services.

Unleashing the Power of Better Auth

After six months of dedicated work in his Ethiopian bedroom, Engida unveiled the initial version of Better Auth on GitHub in September 2024. The library quickly garnered attention from developers who recognized its potential.

Today, Better Auth boasts over 150,000 weekly downloads, 15,000 GitHub stars, and a thriving community of over 6,000 Discord members, reflecting its growing popularity among the developer community.

What sets Better Auth apart is its ability to cater to diverse authentication needs, from simple flows to enterprise-grade systems, all directly integrated into developers’ databases. This approach resonates with early-stage AI startups seeking custom authentication solutions that align with proprietary APIs, ensure secure token management, and offer scalable options without exorbitant costs.

Arnav Sahu, partner at Peak XV and former Y Combinator principal, lauds Better Auth for its traction among AI startups, highlighting its appeal to the next generation of tech innovators.

For Engida, the journey doesn’t end with the success of Better Auth. The startup, currently free to use, is focused on enhancing its core features and introducing a paid enterprise infrastructure that complements its open-source foundation. This model allows developers to choose between self-hosting or leveraging Better Auth’s cloud add-ons based on their needs.

Looking ahead, Engida plans to maintain the community-driven ethos of Better Auth while expanding its capabilities. Despite graduating from Y Combinator’s recent Spring batch, he remains hands-on in coding, with plans to recruit a small team to support the product’s growth and cater to enterprise users.

With Better Auth making waves as Peak XV’s first direct investment in an African founder, Engida’s journey sends a powerful message to aspiring entrepreneurs in Ethiopia and beyond. By building a globally acclaimed product, he aims to inspire others to pursue ambitious goals and redefine what’s possible.