[ SHORT ANSWER ]
Privy — now owned by Stripe — is the better choice for embedded wallets belonging to your human users: social login onboarding, non-custodial key shares, and a polished consumer flow. Choose 1Claw when the wallet belongs to an autonomous agent rather than a person, and the controls that matter are destination allowlists, spend caps, simulation, and human approval rather than a login.
The distinction is who authorises a transaction. Privy's model derives authority from a user authenticating. An agent has no one to authenticate, so authority has to come from policy evaluated per transaction. Many products need both: Privy for end users, 1Claw for the agents acting on the platform's own behalf.
[ COMPARISON ]
1Claw vs Privy (Stripe)
Capability by capability. A dash means partial or qualified support — read the note.
[ WHEN TO USE ]
Which one is right for you
Most of these are not either/or. Where the competitor is the better answer, we say so.
Use Privy (Stripe) when
- Your wallets belong to human users signing in to your product.
- You want consumer-grade onboarding UX out of the box.
- You are already in the Stripe ecosystem and want that integration.
Use 1Claw when
- The wallet is controlled by an agent with no human present.
- You need per-transaction policy rather than per-session authentication.
- The same agent also holds API credentials you want under one policy model.
[ MIGRATION ]
Moving over in three steps
Most teams keep Privy (Stripe) for what it is good at and add 1Claw for the agent layer.
- 1Keep Privy for end-user wallets — the categories do not overlap.
- 2Provision per-agent signing keys in 1Claw for the autonomous side.
- 3Attach allowlists and daily caps before funding anything on mainnet.
[ FAQ ]
Common questions
Is Privy still independent?
No — Privy was acquired by Stripe. If you are reading an older comparison that treats it as a standalone startup, that framing is out of date.
Can Privy wallets be used by agents?
There is agent-oriented tooling, but the core model assumes a user authenticating. For a fully autonomous signer you still need policy evaluated per transaction, which is what 1Claw adds.
Can I use both?
Yes, and it is a common shape: Privy for your users' wallets, 1Claw for your platform's agents.
[ RELATED ]
Other comparisons
[ FREE TIER ] 3 vaults · 50 secrets · 2 agents · 100 signatures/mo
Give agents access, not copies
Store the credential once, scope it per agent, and let the agent act without ever holding it.