3 Approaches to Add Enterprise SSO to Your App

The article discusses three approaches to adding enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO) to an existing app: Direct Integration, All-In-One Middleware, and WorkOS SSO. Each approach has its pros and cons in terms of control, maintenance, security, flexibility, and integration with other services. Direct Integration involves manually integrating with identity providers like Okta, OneLogin, Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Salesforce, and GSuite. This approach offers maximum control but can be expensive to maintain due to the need for multiple different integrations. It also requires extra care to avoid security vulnerabilities. All-In-One Middleware solutions like Auth0, AWS Cognito, and Google Cloud Identity Platform provide comprehensive authentication and identity features. They handle all account-related business logic but require migrating existing user accounts over to their environment. This approach can be inflexible and may involve additional costs for non-enterprise users. WorkOS SSO takes a different approach by offering pre-built IdP integrations while allowing developers to maintain control over their UI, logic, and storage layers. It is focused on enterprise features and built in a modular way, enabling developers to choose the features they need without overhauling large parts of their app. Ultimately, the choice between these approaches depends on factors such as the scale of enterprise adoption, the complexity of existing user accounts, and the specific needs of the business.