Amazon Cognito vs Symantec VIP

Likelihood to Recommend

If you're already using AWS, there's no reason why you should implement your own password authentication or OAuth flows when you can use Cognito instead. It solves that work for you astoundingly well. You might be tempted by a tool like Okta for OAuth flows, but unless you already have a hard dependency on it then you should go with Cognito instead. It's much lighter weight, and it's much more pleasant to extend it with lambdas.

If you don't have any AWS in your stack, or it's very very important to you to stay platform-independent for your login flows, then those are reasons to avoid Cognito.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees

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Symantec VIP is well suited for enterprise institutions, like our own, managing a wide range of devices and wanting to provide their users with an extra layer of security. Being able to have 2-factor authentication with a unique pin was key for us and this would be well suited for any organization that holds sensitive information like, in our case, student records. They have great support and getting issues resolved does not take much time, a quick call to support usually straightens issues out.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Pros

Amazon Cognito allows you to build multi-factor authentication with a few clicks.
Cognito supports sign-in with social identity providers like Facebook and Google.
It is easy to manage Cognito users through the Console.
It is easy to customize sign-up and sign-in workflows by integrating with AWS Lambda.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 11-50 employees

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VIP access manager is great at setting up multiple tokens for the same user.
VIP access manager is great at managing multiple users simultaneously.
VIP access manager can be accessed from the web, the browser-based interface makes it easy to connect.

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David Reese

Endpoint Support Technician

Bon Secours Health SystemHospital & Health Care, 10,001+ employees

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Cons

As such I do not find any major things as cons. However they can improve the documentation.
Sometimes additional customisation increases complexity. Most of those advanced features are not used frequently.

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Apurv Doshi

Senior Solutions Architect

InfostretchInformation Technology and Services, 1001-5000 employees

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Reliability on the app. Most users dislike having the authentication app on their cell phone because if they don't have their cellular device on-hand then they're unable to authenticate.
Perhaps a bio-metric enhancement in the near future would take this application to the next level.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 201-500 employees

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Usability

Amazon Cognito 8.0

Based on 2 answers

All the features AWS Cognito offers gives the user the options they need without making it too complicated. Your customers will be happy. On the administration site usability is also great. After a small learning curve, you can setup Cognito for your usage

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Verified User

Professional in Information Technology

Fund-Raising Company, 1001-5000 employees

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No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

Support Rating

Amazon Cognito 7.3

Based on 3 answers

AWS Support overall is poor. Your main resources are trainings and the docs, and the docs can be very confusing. Using Cognito well involves having a developer learn it deeply and help support your team in understanding it. That said, Cognito's competitors also have dismal support and even worse documentation, so while this isn't a strength for Cognito it may still be the frontrunner here.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees

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Symantec VIP 9.0

Based on 2 answers

Great vendor support, along with a great product solution

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Information Technology

Financial Services Company, 201-500 employees

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Alternatives Considered

When compared to Okta, I would say Cognito is still not up to pace with Okta. However, I guess they are constantly updating their features and will soon come with the new features. I would say Cogntio provides a better interface than Azure.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Computer Software Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Symantec VIP is too easy to use for our company. IT sets it up for us and we simply have to request for them to add new devices each time. It is an app and the numbers refresh fairly quickly. Overall, it is a painless integration and simple enough that all the employees can use it without a problem.

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Verified User

Team Lead in Professional Services

Civil Engineering Company, 10,001+ employees

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Return on Investment

Amazon Cognito has had a positive impact on our business by allowing us to develop services that require user sign-up and sign-in more rapidly. Not only do we not need to build or maintain these features, but Cognito's implementation is also better than what we would be justified in building ourselves.
Amazon Cognito makes user management easy. This reduces the time we have to spend supporting users. Non-technical product managers can even use the AWS Console to manage users without requiring support from developers.
Amazon Cognito is likely more secure than what would be built in-house; a portion of our attack surface is now managed by Amazon.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Research Company, 11-50 employees

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It was as easy to implement and manage as promised, so that definitely saved us time and frustration.
It allowed us to improve on our existing PHI and PII security measures.
Allowing secure access from remote locations, especially smart phones, was a huge plus.

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Verified User

Consultant in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 51-200 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Amazon Cognito Editions & Modules

Edition

Starting Price	$0.01¹

Per MAU

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Symantec VIP Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Likelihood to Recommend

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Pros

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Cons

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Usability

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Support Rating

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Return on Investment

Amazon Cognito

Symantec VIP

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Amazon Cognito Editions & Modules

Edition

Additional Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Symantec VIP Editions & Modules

Additional Pricing Details

Add comparison