Amazon Cognito vs. IBM Verify vs. Okta

Well Suited

1. B2C mobile and web apps with a high number of users.
2. Cheaper and cost-effective.
3. If the other pieces of the infra are already using AWS services like Lambda, S3, Pinpoint, etc.

Not Suited For:

1. Advanced use-cases (Biometrics based authentication) Email, and other MFA channels.
2. For any use-cases needing SCIM.
3. Customized flows of SSO, and MFA will need a layer on Lambda and other AWS services.

Incentivized

It is well-suited for managing different users and roles and assigning permissions based on their defined roles. It is well-suited when one needs to add extra layers of authentication for certain roles or users, create custom rules for some users, and so on.

Incentivized

Should be well-suited for a SaaS business organisation as they have a lot of internal applications and need a role-based authentication system between the various teams, improving security and audit log system to account for any breaches. It integrates well with internal applications such as Salesforce and Oracle. Best when need of SSO.

Incentivized

• Strong integration with React.js and client-side applications
• Easy to bridge Cognito identities with the rest of the AWS ecosystem
• Easy to store user profile data directly in Cognito rather than having to build additional services/endpoints
• Easy integration with AWS Lambda to extend and add sophistication to the service

Incentivized

• IBM Security Verify provides comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) capabilities.
• IBM Security Verify provides multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities.
• IBM Security Verify provides robust identity and access governance capabilities.
• IBM Security Verify provides comprehensive auditing capabilities.
• IBM Security Verify provides a comprehensive platform for managing and protecting privileged accounts.

Incentivized

• Centralized control of enterprise passwords
• Extensive customization of acceptable password criteria
• One system for Identity and Access Management to learn
• Scalable throughout the university for all central services
• Uniform login experience for students, faculty, and staff
• Single point of response to address termination of access
• Ability to use FastPass for lower priority systems
• Excellent support of multi-factor requirements

Incentivized

• Amazon Cognito has a bit of a learning curve. You need to learn its concepts and terminology. The documentation does not describe some topics comprehensively.
• Some Console screens would benefit from improved search and filtering options.
• When another AWS product (e.g., SageMaker) configures Cognito on your behalf, it is not clear what you're getting. For example, the expiration of a temporary password was configured but never communicated.

Incentivized

• The mobile app can be a bit buggy at times if it gets fixed it would be great.
• UI seems a bit old compared to modern tools out there.
• There is a bit of a learning curve; if the developers can make it more intuitive it would be awesome.

Incentivized

• I do have to reset my password quite frequently. However, I don't think there is really a way to improve this, as it's a good security measure.
• It makes me re-sign in a couple of times a day, sometimes if I haven't used my laptop for a couple of hours, and sometimes just randomly throughout the day.
• It doesn't remember my devices, either my laptop or phone. so it always calls that out.

Incentivized

It works flawlessly, i have never faced any major issues with this. It has all the features such as Iam and security management. I think its a good investment and the benefits we reap from this software are worth the price.

Incentivized

Okta has a passion to provide secure and scalable identity solution. Their passion has come across as advocacy in a way that has deepened my knowledge of the field of authentication. I took identity for granted before but after seeing features such as external authentication I know that Okta can enable my business to reach new heights

Amazon Cognito is easy to use and implement if you don't need to implement custom policies. But if your security team requires something outside the box, then implementation becomes complicated and you risk wasting time. There is no option for customizable regex for passwords, which is a major deficiency. The standard password policy, allow to choose the length of the password, if it should contains at least one number, one special character, one uppercase letter and one lowercase letter.

Incentivized

While setup and implementation takes work and time, the flexibility and possibilities make up for that in the long run. This is not a product you can just install and run, but if you design and implement your ruleset well, it will save you a lot of work afterwards. Just make sure that the systems you want to use it for have an existing and proven connector.

Incentivized

Some of its features are great and some are slightly complex and not easy without vendor support.

Incentivized

It has never let us down since its inception and installation. User credentials and secure access have always been guaranteed. Ironclad security (through single sign-on, MFA, etc.) has ensured that our user credential details are safe as is our information/data. The correct access is given to users, based on role-based access with segregation of duty and the principle of least privilege being deployed. The IBM support has also been first class and they have proactively resolved any minor issues we have encountered.

Incentivized

The Okta Identity Cloud advertises 4 9's of reliability and I would go as far to say that it may even do better than that. As a true Global organization that operates in just about every region of the world, we have yet to have an issue with The Okta Identity Cloud that has impacted our business operations.

Incentivized

From my perspective, for the things that my group uses it for, Okta is very fast. It is as least as fast as the local password database methods that it replaces on our campus enterprise services. I do not believe that it slows anything down at all. In fact, not having to think too much about the login, because they all look the same, probably speeds things up somewhat.

Incentivized

Community support is excellent, many times even better and quicker then the offical AWS support. I really cannot recommend community support enough! Apart from that the service is relativily easy to use and does not have a huge learning curve. Examples are easy to follow and will help you start using the service.

Incentivized

The support team has always been the primary consultation base when we are faced by performance problems. From the deployment stage the team has managed to monitor the operation lifecycle and give best insights based on their observation. It works 24/7 to enhance productive service delivery to clients. The IBM Security Verify Support team has been the main player in the successful performance of this software.

Incentivized

We've had a few support cases over the years and every case has been handled by the Okta support team beautifully. We received clear answers to questions we had regarding setup and even were provided simple to follow guides on how to setup their product to use with custom applications.

Incentivized

They are ideal tools to create a secure and unique login experience for our applications. Thanks to its API authorization, Amazon Cognito ensures connections to applications that are secure.It is easy to use and provides easy access to files and applications that you need to complete your goal.

Incentivized

We conducted a comparison study between IBM Verify and Okta as well as Duo Security before making our selection. IBM Verify emerged as the perfect fit because its superior capability to integrate with our current system environment surpassed competitor security solutions. IBM Verify demonstrated superior reliability through its enterprise-class scalability and fully transparent auditing mechanisms.

Incentivized

Okta is far superior in terms of integrations, user interface, automation, and connectivity. Additionally, Okta offers better support and availability, and a more robust solution across every capacity Entra competes in. Okta simply works, whereas Microsoft Entra has a large overhead that is difficult to use when configuring things.

Incentivized

The licensing terms were favourable due to their flexibility based on the size and purpose of implementation. The billing frequency is done on quarterly basis. The vendor team has enacted best user policies that gives the company the full control of this platform. It is cost-effective as compared to most security verification tools in the market.

Incentivized

Being a cloud native application, The Okta Identity Cloud is extremely scalable and easy to setup. By integrating into existing directories and applications via standard techniques and protocols, it is very easy to both initially setup and add additional users as required. Once all the necessary integrations are setup, it's a simple rinse and repeat process to onboard additional users (which can be automated with imports as well)

Incentivized

In the case of adjustments, we were often able to carry them out completely on our own and only used professional services for new requirements. Particularly in the case of access management, it is very positive that we usually needed IBM for a task in less than an hour and then developed the solution further on our own.

Incentivized

• ROI is great for Amazon Cognito Overall.
• It is included in the AWS Free Tier so you can use it for a good amount without paying, so the software can be tested beforehand.
• The paid pricing is also affordable, so a positive impact on ROI.

Incentivized

• Use of the software has enabled us to track access to our premises and systems, which has, in turn, reduced unauthorised access.
• The software has enabled us to centralize identify and access management.
• IBM Verify use in our organisation has reduced security risks by ensuring compliance, streamlining, and automating all critical identity management processes.

Incentivized

• Increased user productivity - not fighting with IT all the time!
• Though there could be a bit more on the 'lost/broken phone' front, the self-service eliminates time that would typically be spent waiting for IT support/admins.
• An Okta account under a certain domain allows proper access from the get-go, and under certain apps (such as our HRIS), adding members is easy.
• Improved security - deactivating Okta removes all account access across multiple platforms instantly for leavers.

Incentivized