Auth0 vs OAuth2

Overview

Auth0

Stacks1.4K

Followers2.1K

Votes215

OAuth2

Stacks683

Followers650

Votes0

Auth0 vs OAuth2: What are the differences?

Auth0 and OAuth2 are authentication and authorization solutions commonly used in modern applications. Let's explore the key differences between Auth0 and OAuth2 in more detail:

Functionality: Auth0 is a comprehensive identity management platform that provides authentication, authorization, and user management services. It offers features such as user authentication with various identity providers, social login integration, multi-factor authentication, and user profile management. Auth0 also includes user consent management, single sign-on (SSO), and customizable authentication flows. On the other hand, OAuth2 is an open standard for authorization that defines a framework for secure delegated access to resources. It focuses primarily on granting access tokens and managing permissions.
Implementation: Auth0 provides a complete identity platform as a service, allowing developers to integrate authentication and authorization functionality using Auth0's APIs and SDKs. It provides a unified interface for managing user identities. OAuth2, on the other hand, is a protocol specification that needs to be implemented by developers in their applications. It provides a set of defined roles, grant types, and endpoints for authentication and authorization. Developers need to implement these specifications to enable OAuth2-based authentication and authorization.
Scalability and Maintenance: Auth0 is a hosted service, meaning that the infrastructure and maintenance are managed by Auth0 itself. This provides scalability and reliability without requiring developers to manage the underlying infrastructure. In contrast, OAuth2 is an open standard that can be implemented on any server or platform. The scalability and maintenance depend on the implementation choices made by developers. They are responsible for managing the infrastructure, updates, and security of the OAuth2 implementation.
Integration and Ecosystem: Auth0 offers a rich ecosystem and integrations with various identity providers, including social media platforms, enterprise directories, and popular identity protocols like SAML and OpenID Connect. OAuth2, on the other hand, is a protocol that allows developers to integrate with multiple identity providers, including popular ones like Google, Facebook, and GitHub. It provides a standardized approach for obtaining access tokens from these providers and managing permissions.
Customization and Extensibility: Auth0 provides extensive customization options, allowing developers to tailor the authentication and authorization flows. It supports custom branding, user interface customization, and a flexible rules engine for implementing custom logic during authentication and authorization. OAuth2, being a protocol, provides a certain level of flexibility, but the customization options are limited to the specific implementation choices made by developers.

In summary, Auth0 is a comprehensive identity management platform that offers authentication, authorization, and user management services as a hosted service. It provides a unified interface for managing user identities and includes features like social login integration and customizable authentication flows. OAuth2, on the other hand, is an authorization protocol that defines a framework for secure delegated access to resources. It focuses primarily on granting access tokens and managing permissions.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on Auth0, OAuth2

Vaibhav

Jul 17, 2020

Needs advice

Currently, Passport.js repo has 324 open issues, and Jared (the original author) seems to be the one doing most of the work. Also, given that the documentation is not proper. Is it worth using Passport.js?

As of now, StackShare shows it has 29 companies using it. How do you implement auth in your project or your company? Are there any good alternatives to Passport.js? Should I implement auth from scratch?

220k views220k

Comments

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.

297k views297k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Auth0	OAuth2
A set of unified APIs and tools that instantly enables Single Sign On and user management to all your applications.	It is an authorization framework that enables a third-party application to obtain limited access to an HTTP service, either on behalf of a resource owner by orchestrating an approval interaction between the resource owner and the HTTP service, or by allowing the third-party application to obtain access on its own behalf.
User and Password support with verification and forgot password email workflow; Painless SAML Auth with Enterprises; Integration with 20+ Social Providers; SDKs for all platforms mobile and web; Token-based authentication for APIs	-
Statistics
Stacks 1.4K	Stacks 683
Followers 2.1K	Followers 650
Votes 215	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 70 JSON web token 31 Integration with 20+ Social Providers 20 It's a universal solution 20 SDKs 15 Amazing Documentation Cons 15 Pricing too high (Developer Pro) 7 Poor support 4 Rapidly changing API 4 Status page not reflect actual status	No community feedback yet
Integrations
Amazon S3 Salesforce Sales Cloud Parse Firebase Ruby PHP Laravel Python Java Spring	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Auth0, OAuth2?

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,

Amazon Cognito

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.

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

Functionality: Auth0 is a comprehensive identity management platform that provides authentication, authorization, and user management services. It offers features such as user authentication with various identity providers, social login integration, multi-factor authentication, and user profile management. Auth0 also includes user consent management, single sign-on (SSO), and customizable authentication flows. On the other hand, OAuth2 is an open standard for authorization that defines a framework for secure delegated access to resources. It focuses primarily on granting access tokens and managing permissions.
Implementation: Auth0 provides a complete identity platform as a service, allowing developers to integrate authentication and authorization functionality using Auth0's APIs and SDKs. It provides a unified interface for managing user identities. OAuth2, on the other hand, is a protocol specification that needs to be implemented by developers in their applications. It provides a set of defined roles, grant types, and endpoints for authentication and authorization. Developers need to implement these specifications to enable OAuth2-based authentication and authorization.
Scalability and Maintenance: Auth0 is a hosted service, meaning that the infrastructure and maintenance are managed by Auth0 itself. This provides scalability and reliability without requiring developers to manage the underlying infrastructure. In contrast, OAuth2 is an open standard that can be implemented on any server or platform. The scalability and maintenance depend on the implementation choices made by developers. They are responsible for managing the infrastructure, updates, and security of the OAuth2 implementation.
Integration and Ecosystem: Auth0 offers a rich ecosystem and integrations with various identity providers, including social media platforms, enterprise directories, and popular identity protocols like SAML and OpenID Connect. OAuth2, on the other hand, is a protocol that allows developers to integrate with multiple identity providers, including popular ones like Google, Facebook, and GitHub. It provides a standardized approach for obtaining access tokens from these providers and managing permissions.
Customization and Extensibility: Auth0 provides extensive customization options, allowing developers to tailor the authentication and authorization flows. It supports custom branding, user interface customization, and a flexible rules engine for implementing custom logic during authentication and authorization. OAuth2, being a protocol, provides a certain level of flexibility, but the customization options are limited to the specific implementation choices made by developers.

Auth0 vs OAuth2