Auth0 vs Okta – What’s the Difference (Compare SSO Platforms)
Auth0 vs Okta, What’s the difference ?. Auth0 is an easy to implement, adaptable authentication and authorization platform. Whereas, Okta provides cloud software that helps companies manage and secure user authentication into applications, and for developers to build identity controls into applications, website web services and devices.
Todd McKinnon, the CEO of Okta, says that nowadays, every organization is trying to do more with technology, impacting organizations on the tools they give to their employees. They want those tools to be modern, cloud-based, and easy to use. In addition, organizations want to have an excellent customer experience, a great mobile app, and a great website. But, of course, these apps and people accessing these apps from different locations increase the security risk.
Security is on top of everyone’s mind. Like digital experiences are identity-first, security is becoming identity-first, meaning that the old world of trying to secure things with a firewall or a network does not work anymore. Instead, you have to have a system that controls what an end-user can do and what they cannot do.
In this article, we will learn and discuss Auth0 vs Okta, and differences between them.
What is Auth0
Auth0 is a third party service that can be plugged into your application. It helps you to rapidly implement login and permission functionality in your application. In other words, if you need people to log into your app and once they are in you need to be able to allow or deny them and mention certain things that they can or cannot do in your application. Then Auth0 is a great way to start because it takes all that programming work out of your hands puts it in an SDK and then you just take that SDK or that software development kit and plug it into your application. One example of an application is our WordPress Auth0 Single Sign On plugin
What is Okta
Most people think of Okta as applications with single sign-on or multi-factor authentication and that is where it started but it is definitely not the end. If those applications are based in the cloud as SAAS apps, odds are that they are in the Okta integration network. Most organizations are also building custom applications that might be used for their own employees, partners and customers for example our Okta WordPress SSO plugin. Okta connects to both of these using open protocols like SAML or Open ID connect for a consistent single sign-on experience. With the new okta access gateway you can even do this with on-premises apps that are sitting behind your firewall.
Auth0 vs Okta - Compare the Differences
Auth0 and Okta have similar features, for instance, single sign-on, identity management, and user governance tools, but at the same time, each of them offers some unique tools. For example, unlike Okta, Auth0 provides multi-factor authentication tools. These special tools enable organizations to ensure that former team or staff can no longer access the website or data once they are not part of that organization anymore.
On the other hand, Okta provides specific tools for zero-trust networking such as biometric authentication, including fingerprint scanning, facial recognition, or voice authentication.
Zero Trust
Instead of believing everything behind the corporate firewall is safe, the organization assumes a breach with the Zero Trust model. It verifies each request as though it originated from an untrusted network. Zero Trust strategy is based on three principles;
- Verify explicitly
- Use least privileged access
- Assume breach
Before determining access, every access request is fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted.
Authentication and authorization of identities are based on all available data points, including user identity, data classification, device and application health, and location. Strong policies are at the core of Zero Trust, enabling you to secure a mobile workforce while boosting productivity. Minimal access to resources and information should be enforced based on legitimate business purposes. Limit user service and application access with just-in-time and just-enough-access, risk-based adaptive policies, and data protection controls. Prepare for the worst to secure the best.
User Onboarding Features
While Auth0 is an extremely useful tool, it does not provide an efficient system for user onboarding; more explicitly, registering and authorizing new users. On the other hand, Okta provides a very good user onboarding experience. Okta’s tools permit users to get access easily, automate provision, and approve workflows.
Authentication Features
Chances are as you are building these custom applications, you are also building APIs behind the scenes and it is important to protect those too. Okta access management allows you to have single sign-on experience directly with your APIs. It is basically OAuth as a service, it plugs into your existing API management portals or gateways but okta goes even deeper. Every single one of these applications and APIs is also running on servers or containers. Okta’s advanced server access enables you to extend a single sign-on experience right down to those servers and containers themselves.
User Restrictions
Large organizations with a lot of users, such as a school, both Auth0 and Okta can be good options. Okta has no limits regarding active users, however, Auth0 can handle up to 50,000 external users and over 5,000 internal employees.
Integration Tools
Auth0 and Okta provide a large number of integration tools. Okta’s built-in integration tools are compatible with up to 5,500 third-party apps (G Suite, Zendesk, and Office 365 are some examples). Okta also gives an open API that can integrate easily with any other third-party app.
Auth0 uses built-in integration tools that are compatible with third-party apps, such as Slack, Zoom, and Office 365. Furthermore, it uses an open API that can integrate easily with nearly all third-party apps, and also it is compatible with tools like LDAP, SAML, and ADFS.
Okta vs Auth0 - Which is Better ?
Okta is about connecting people with the technology they need, whether employees connect to their office work systems or customers connect to the websites and mobile applications. Auth0 accelerates that journey; it gives the customer more choice, flexibility. Also, it provides flexibility and extensibility to the developers to do exactly what they need, making customer apps built faster. So combining that with Okta makes it more productive for customers.
Auth0 offers a free version. Moreover, its lowest-priced plan offers many tools and features, allowing small-scale companies to get up and running quickly. It is reasonable for small companies with less complex identity management needs. For 50,000 or fewer active users, Auth0 is a good choice. Auth0 is suitable for small teams and companies developing apps, have a limited budget, need the ability to apply several integrations with different endpoints, want specialized multi-factor authentication tools, or require a wide variety of tools for identity management.
On the other hand, Okta is used by small to large organizations doing a broad range of business and supporting independent mobile users. Okta also offers experienced teams access to the exact tools they need. Therefore, Okta is better for advanced users with a good understanding of the tools and features required or for businesses with thousands of users, with zero trust networking protocols, or those who have onboard and offboard independent users.
Auth0 vs Okta - Final Thoughts
Both Auth0 and Okta support flexible identity management systems that offer customer or employee logins and ID management. Small companies commonly use Auth0; small teams are attracted to the free version, which is sufficient for various projects. On the other hand, Okta is used by organizations of all sizes. However, it is more popular with mid-sized and larger companies and is the dominant identity management system on the market.
