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  1. Stackups
  2. Utilities
  3. Authentication
  4. User Management And Authentication
  5. OpenID Connect vs Passport

OpenID Connect vs Passport

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Passport
Passport
Stacks471
Followers368
Votes0
GitHub Stars23.5K
Forks1.2K
OpenID Connect
OpenID Connect
Stacks233
Followers133
Votes0

OpenID Connect vs Passport: What are the differences?

Introduction:

OpenID Connect and Passport are both authentication frameworks used for user authentication and authorization in web applications. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that developers should consider when choosing which framework to implement in their applications.

  1. Integration: OpenID Connect is an identity layer built on top of OAuth 2.0 protocol, providing a standardized authentication mechanism for applications. It allows applications to delegate user authentication to an OpenID Connect provider, such as Google or Facebook. On the other hand, Passport is a middleware for Node.js, providing a simple and flexible way to authenticate requests. Passport supports various authentication strategies, including OAuth, OpenID, and local authentication.

  2. Flexibility: Passport offers a wide range of authentication strategies, making it highly adaptable to different authentication providers and requirements. Developers can choose and combine multiple strategies as needed for their application. In contrast, OpenID Connect has a more standardized and rigid authentication process, limiting the flexibility to choose different strategies or customize the authentication flow.

  3. Protocol: OpenID Connect is a complete protocol that defines the user authentication and token exchange process. It specifies the use of JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for transmitting authenticated user information and provides a well-defined set of API endpoints for authentication and authorization. In contrast, Passport is not a protocol but a middleware that integrates various authentication strategies. The protocols used by Passport depend on the strategies implemented, such as OAuth 1.0a or OAuth 2.0.

  4. External Dependencies: OpenID Connect relies on external identity providers (IdPs) or OpenID Connect providers for user authentication. This means that the application needs to establish a trust relationship with the selected provider and rely on their infrastructure for user authentication. Passport, on the other hand, allows developers to choose between using external authentication providers or implementing local authentication within their application.

  5. Community Support: Passport has a large and active community of developers, making it easy to find documentation, tutorials, and support for different authentication strategies. The community continuously contributes new authentication strategies, bug fixes, and improvements, ensuring that Passport remains up-to-date with the latest authentication trends. OpenID Connect also has community support, but it may be more limited compared to Passport due to its standardized nature.

  6. Learning Curve: Passport provides a simplified and intuitive authentication experience for developers. Its modular architecture and easy-to-use API make it relatively fast and straightforward to implement authentication in an application. On the other hand, OpenID Connect requires a deeper understanding of the protocol specifications and the underlying OAuth 2.0 protocol. This can lead to a steeper learning curve for developers who are new to OpenID Connect.

In Summary, OpenID Connect is a standardized identity layer on top of OAuth 2.0, providing a rigid authentication process, while Passport is a flexible middleware that supports various authentication strategies, making it highly adaptable to different authentication providers and requirements.

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Advice on Passport, OpenID Connect

Vaibhav
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

Detailed Comparison

Passport
Passport
OpenID Connect
OpenID Connect

It is authentication middleware for Node.js. Extremely flexible and modular, It can be unobtrusively dropped in to any Express-based web application. A comprehensive set of strategies support authentication using a username and password, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

It is a simple identity layer on top of the OAuth 2.0 protocol. It allows Clients to verify the identity of the End-User based on the authentication performed by an Authorization Server, as well as to obtain basic profile information about the End-User in an interoperable and REST-like manner.

Single sign-on with OpenID and OAuth; Easily handle success and failure
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
23.5K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
1.2K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
471
Stacks
233
Followers
368
Followers
133
Votes
0
Votes
0
Integrations
ExpressJS
ExpressJS
Vue.js
Vue.js
JSON Web Token
JSON Web Token
JSON Web Token
JSON Web Token
Spring Security
Spring Security
OAuth2
OAuth2

What are some alternatives to Passport, OpenID Connect?

Auth0

Auth0

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

Stormpath

Stormpath

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

Keycloak

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

Devise is a flexible authentication solution for Rails based on Warden

Firebase Authentication

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

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

WorkOS

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

OAuth.io

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

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

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.

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