How to Add Authentication to Your Next.js App in Under 7 Minutes

Building a secure login system for a website can be hard and time-consuming. Many developers struggle with this, especially when they need to work quickly. But there's good news! A tool called Clerk can help you add strong and customizable login features to your Next.js website in just a few minutes. This is great for developers who want to focus on other parts of their website without worrying about security. Let's look at how Clerk makes this process easier and faster.

Step 1: Setting Up Clerk in Your Project

Start by adding Clerk to your Next.js project. Install the @clerk/nextjs package using your preferred package manager. This SDK provides everything you need to get started with authentication.

Step 2: Configure Environment Variables

Next, set up your environment variables. Clerk requires specific keys to connect your application to the Clerk backend. Add these variables to your .env.local file, which you can find in your Clerk dashboard under the API Keys section. Just sign up and create an app, and get your keys.

These keys are essential for securing your app and ensuring that only authorized users have access.

Step 3: Adding Middleware for Route Protection

Protecting your application’s routes is critical, especially for sensitive or user-specific content. Clerk makes it easy with its middleware. Simply create a middleware.ts file in the root of your project (in the `src` directory if you have that else keep it in the root folder where you have the .env.local file) and add the following code:

Step 4: Integrating Clerk Components

Clerk provides a suite of pre-built UI components that can be seamlessly integrated into your Next.js app. All Clerk hooks and components must be children of the <ClerkProvider> component, which provides active session and user context. So in your layout.tsx wrap entire component with <ClerkProvider>.

Next, using the prebuilt components in clerk such as <SignInButton>, <SignUpButton>, and <UserButton> etc. to manage auth.

And that's it, when a user clicks the sign-in button, it redirects to the Clerk's sign-in page, after that user completes the authentication process using either any auth providers such as Google, Apple, Facebook, GitHub, etc. or Email Password method. Clerk supports almost every auth provider that is available. You can enable and disable them in the Clerk's dashboard. After authentication is complete, Clerk redirects the user to the desired page in your Next.js application.

Final Thoughts: By following these steps, you can quickly add a good login system to your Next.js website. Clerk does most of the hard work for you, so you can spend more time on other important parts of your website.