Amazon Cognito vs Azure Active Directory: What are the differences?

1. Authentication and Authorization Model: The key difference between Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory lies in their authentication and authorization models. Amazon Cognito provides a user pool feature that supports authentication and identity management for web and mobile applications. It allows developers to easily authenticate users using social identity providers, such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon. On the other hand, Azure Active Directory is a comprehensive identity and access management solution that primarily focuses on enterprise-level authentication and authorization. It provides features like single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and role-based access control (RBAC) to enable secure access to various resources.

2. Scalability and Availability: When it comes to scalability and availability, Amazon Cognito has an advantage over Azure Active Directory. Amazon Cognito is built on AWS infrastructure, which is known for its scalability and high availability. It can automatically scale to accommodate a large number of users and provides built-in fault tolerance. In contrast, Azure Active Directory may have limitations in terms of scalability and availability, especially for organizations with a significant number of users or complex requirements.

3. Integration with AWS Services vs. Microsoft Services: Another key difference is the integration capabilities of Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory with their respective cloud ecosystems. Amazon Cognito seamlessly integrates with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3, AWS Lambda, and Amazon API Gateway, allowing developers to build end-to-end solutions using a wide range of AWS tools. On the other hand, Azure Active Directory has strong integration with Microsoft services like Azure App Service, Office 365, and Microsoft Graph API, providing a cohesive experience for organizations heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem.

4. Pricing Model: The pricing models of Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory also differ. Amazon Cognito offers a free tier for up to 50,000 monthly active users in the user pool, with additional charges for authentication and data synchronization. Azure Active Directory comes with different pricing tiers depending on the features and capabilities required by the organization. The pricing is based on per-user and per-application basis, with additional charges for premium features like SSO and MFA.

5. Supported Platforms and Protocols: When it comes to supported platforms and protocols, Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory have different focuses. Amazon Cognito primarily targets web and mobile applications, providing SDKs for various platforms like iOS, Android, JavaScript, and React Native. It supports popular standard authentication protocols like OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.0. Azure Active Directory, on the other hand, provides broader support for various platforms, including web, mobile, and desktop applications. It also supports a wide range of authentication protocols like SAML, WS-Federation, and OAuth.

6. Customization and Extensibility: Both Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory offer customization and extensibility options, but with different areas of focus. Amazon Cognito allows developers to customize the user interface of the authentication flow to match the application's branding. It also supports custom authentication flows using Lambda triggers. Azure Active Directory, on the other hand, provides extensive customization options for user attributes and claims mapping. It also supports custom policies for fine-grained control over authentication and authorization behavior.

In Summary, Amazon Cognito and Azure Active Directory differ in their authentication and authorization models, scalability and availability, integration capabilities, pricing models, supported platforms and protocols, as well as customization and extensibility options.