The login form is dead weight. Cut it loose.

Passwordless authentication replaces passwords with cryptographic proof, biometrics, or magic link workflows. When self-hosted, it gives you direct control over the authentication stack without handing user credentials to external vendors. For teams that manage sensitive data or operate in regulated environments, self-hosting passwordless authentication is not optional—it is mandatory.

A self-hosted deployment means running the authentication server on your own infrastructure. You choose the hardware, the network topology, the environment variables. You own the database that stores public keys or token metadata. No API calls leave your private subnet. This reduces attack surface and eliminates reliance on a third-party availability window. It also makes compliance audits cleaner, since you can produce logs and proofs directly from your own systems.

The core workflows in passwordless authentication can be grouped into three categories:

• WebAuthn and FIDO2 keys: Users register hardware security keys or built-in platform authenticators. Login is a challenge–response exchange that never exposes secrets.
• Magic links: Login links sent via email are signed and expire rapidly. This method can be backed by secure token storage in your database.
• One-time codes via secure channels: While less elegant, these can be implemented with strict rate limits and short validity periods.

Self-hosting each flow requires an authentication service that handles registration, challenge creation, token issuance, and verification. You must also handle encryption, database indexing for fast lookups, and queueing for outbound messages. For production environments, ensure TLS termination at the edge and isolate the authentication service behind a gateway or internal API.

Deployment can be containerized for portability. Using Docker or Kubernetes, you can script the authentication server, database, and any messaging services in a single stack. CI/CD pipelines can automatically push updates to staging and production. Monitoring is critical—track login success rates, latency for challenge responses, and anomaly detection alerts. Roll back fast if an update interrupts authentication flows.

Security hardening steps include:

• Store only public keys and hashed metadata, never raw secrets.
• Implement rate limiting at the HTTP and application layer.
• Require strong cryptographic algorithms that meet current standards.
• Audit both code and infrastructure regularly.

Passwordless authentication, when self-hosted correctly, achieves two goals: maximum user security and total operational sovereignty. It removes the weakest link—password databases—and keeps the trust chain entirely under your command.

Stop outsourcing trust. Deploy your own stack. See passwordless authentication running live in minutes at hoop.dev.