Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server

Overview

Amazon Cognito

Stacks616

Followers917

Votes34

WSO2 Identity Server

Stacks26

Followers81

Votes3

GitHub Stars825

Forks928

Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will be discussing the key differences between Amazon Cognito and WSO2 Identity Server.

Integration Capabilities: Amazon Cognito provides out-of-the-box integration with other Amazon Web Services (AWS) services, such as AWS Lambda, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and AWS AppSync. It also allows integration with external identity providers (IdPs) like Google, Facebook, or SAML-based IdPs. On the other hand, WSO2 Identity Server offers extensive integration capabilities, including support for standard protocols like SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and WS-Federation. It also supports multiple authentication mechanisms, such as username/password, LDAP, and multi-factor authentication.
Deployment Options: Amazon Cognito is a fully managed service provided by AWS, which means that the infrastructure and maintenance tasks are handled by AWS. It offers a serverless architecture, high availability, and scalability. In contrast, WSO2 Identity Server can be deployed either as an on-premises solution or in the cloud. It provides more flexibility in terms of deployment options, allowing organizations to choose the environment that suits their requirements.
User Management Features: Amazon Cognito provides comprehensive user management features, such as user registration, sign-in, and password recovery. It also supports user groups and allows defining custom attributes for users. WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, offers advanced user management capabilities, including user lifecycle management, self-service features, and role-based access control (RBAC). It also provides features like user provisioning and user synchronization, which can be useful in complex enterprise environments.
Identity Federation: Both Amazon Cognito and WSO2 Identity Server support identity federation, allowing users to authenticate using their existing social media or enterprise credentials. However, WSO2 Identity Server provides more options and flexibility in terms of identity federation. It supports a wide range of protocols, including SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect, making it suitable for various use cases and integration scenarios.
Customization and Extensibility: WSO2 Identity Server offers a highly customizable and extensible solution. It provides a rich set of APIs, allowing developers to customize the behavior and appearance of the identity server. It also supports custom authentication and authorization providers, enabling organizations to implement their own authentication mechanisms. Amazon Cognito, on the other hand, has limited customization options and is more focused on providing a streamlined user experience.
Pricing Model: The pricing model for Amazon Cognito is based on the number of monthly active users, as well as the amount of data stored and transferred. It offers a free tier that includes a certain number of monthly active users and data storage. WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, follows a subscription-based pricing model, which includes different tiers based on the number of users and the level of support required.

In Summary, Amazon Cognito and WSO2 Identity Server have differences in terms of integration capabilities, deployment options, user management features, identity federation, customization and extensibility, and pricing model. Organizations should consider these differences when choosing an identity management solution that best fits their requirements.

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Advice on Amazon Cognito, WSO2 Identity Server

Brent

CEO at DEFY Labs

Mar 7, 2020

Decided

I started our team on Amazon Cognito because I was a Solutions Architect at AWS and found it really easy to follow the tutorials and get a basic app up and running with it.

When our team started working with it, they very quickly became frustrated because of the poor documentation. After 4 days of trying to get all the basic passwordless auth working, our lead engineer made the decision to abandon it and try Auth0... and managed to get everything implemented in 4 hours.

The consensus was that Cognito just isn't mature enough or well-documented, and that the implementation does not cater for real world use cases the way that it should. I believe Amplify has made some of this simpler, but I would still recommend Auth0 as it's been bulletproof for us, and is a sensible price.

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Detailed Comparison

Amazon Cognito	WSO2 Identity Server
You can create unique identities for your users through a number of public login providers (Amazon, Facebook, and Google) and also support unauthenticated guests. You can save app data locally on users’ devices allowing your applications to work even when the devices are offline.	It helps you do single sign-on and identity federation backed by strong and adaptive authentication, securely expose APIs, and manage identities by connecting to heterogeneous user stores. Leverage the power of open-source IAM in your enterprise to innovate fast and build secure Customer IAM (CIAM) solutions to provide an experience your users will love.
Manage Unique Identities;Work Offline;Store and Sync across Devices;Seamless Guest Access;Safeguard AWS Credentials;Control Access to AWS Resources	Single Sign on (SSO); Identity Federation; Strong and Adaptive Authentication ; Account management and provisioning ; Access Control ; API and Microservices security ; Identity Analytics
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 825
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 928
Stacks 616	Stacks 26
Followers 917	Followers 81
Votes 34	Votes 3
Pros & Cons
Pros 14 Backed by Amazon 7 Manage Unique Identities 4 Work Offline 3 MFA 2 Store and Sync Cons 4 Massive Pain to get working 3 Documentation often out of date 2 Login-UI sparsely customizable (e.g. no translation) 1 No recovery codes for MFA 1 There is no "Logout" method in the API	Pros 1 It's a open source solution 1 OpenID and SAML support 1 Supports multiple identity provider
Integrations
No integrations available	OAuth.io OpenID Connect

What are some alternatives to Amazon Cognito, WSO2 Identity Server?

Auth0

A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.

Stormpath

Stormpath is an authentication and user management service that helps development teams quickly and securely build web and mobile applications and services.

Keycloak

It is an Open Source Identity and Access Management For Modern Applications and Services. It adds authentication to applications and secure services with minimum fuss. No need to deal with storing users or authenticating users. It's all available out of the box.

Devise

Devise is a flexible authentication solution for Rails based on Warden

Firebase Authentication

It provides backend services, easy-to-use SDKs, and ready-made UI libraries to authenticate users to your app. It supports authentication using passwords, phone numbers, popular federated identity providers like Google,

WorkOS

Start selling to enterprise customers with just a few lines of code.

OAuth.io

OAuth is a protocol that aimed to provide a single secure recipe to manage authorizations. It is now used by almost every web application. However, 30+ different implementations coexist. OAuth.io fixes this massive problem by acting as a universal adapter, thanks to a robust API. With OAuth.io integrating OAuth takes minutes instead of hours or days.

OmniAuth

OmniAuth is a Ruby authentication framework aimed to abstract away the difficulties of working with various types of authentication providers. It is meant to be hooked up to just about any system, from social networks to enterprise systems to simple username and password authentication.

ORY Hydra

It is a self-managed server that secures access to your applications and APIs with OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. It is OpenID Connect Certified and optimized for latency, high throughput, and low resource consumption.

Kinde

Simple, powerful authentication that you can integrate in minutes. Free your users from passwords with secure and frictionless one click sign up and sign in. Built from the ground up using the best in class security protocols available today.

Related Comparisons

Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will be discussing the key differences between Amazon Cognito and WSO2 Identity Server.

Integration Capabilities: Amazon Cognito provides out-of-the-box integration with other Amazon Web Services (AWS) services, such as AWS Lambda, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and AWS AppSync. It also allows integration with external identity providers (IdPs) like Google, Facebook, or SAML-based IdPs. On the other hand, WSO2 Identity Server offers extensive integration capabilities, including support for standard protocols like SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect, and WS-Federation. It also supports multiple authentication mechanisms, such as username/password, LDAP, and multi-factor authentication.
Deployment Options: Amazon Cognito is a fully managed service provided by AWS, which means that the infrastructure and maintenance tasks are handled by AWS. It offers a serverless architecture, high availability, and scalability. In contrast, WSO2 Identity Server can be deployed either as an on-premises solution or in the cloud. It provides more flexibility in terms of deployment options, allowing organizations to choose the environment that suits their requirements.
User Management Features: Amazon Cognito provides comprehensive user management features, such as user registration, sign-in, and password recovery. It also supports user groups and allows defining custom attributes for users. WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, offers advanced user management capabilities, including user lifecycle management, self-service features, and role-based access control (RBAC). It also provides features like user provisioning and user synchronization, which can be useful in complex enterprise environments.
Identity Federation: Both Amazon Cognito and WSO2 Identity Server support identity federation, allowing users to authenticate using their existing social media or enterprise credentials. However, WSO2 Identity Server provides more options and flexibility in terms of identity federation. It supports a wide range of protocols, including SAML 2.0, OAuth 2.0, and OpenID Connect, making it suitable for various use cases and integration scenarios.
Customization and Extensibility: WSO2 Identity Server offers a highly customizable and extensible solution. It provides a rich set of APIs, allowing developers to customize the behavior and appearance of the identity server. It also supports custom authentication and authorization providers, enabling organizations to implement their own authentication mechanisms. Amazon Cognito, on the other hand, has limited customization options and is more focused on providing a streamlined user experience.
Pricing Model: The pricing model for Amazon Cognito is based on the number of monthly active users, as well as the amount of data stored and transferred. It offers a free tier that includes a certain number of monthly active users and data storage. WSO2 Identity Server, on the other hand, follows a subscription-based pricing model, which includes different tiers based on the number of users and the level of support required.

Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server

Overview

Amazon Cognito vs WSO2 Identity Server: What are the differences?