Auth0 vs. Opal.dev

Auth0 is very well suited for situations where a JSON web token can be used for authorizing APIs, websites, and mobile devices. It's especially useful if the JWT validation can happen at a gateway layer. It's especially useful if you only need to verify the user's email address or mobile number as the passwordless login is easy to implement.

Incentivized

I am frustrated that my organization chose to adopt Opal for our access management tool. It is extremely difficult to use, due to bugs and basic functionality missing. Engineers are not given write access to production resources, so every change must flow through Opal.

This involves writing an IAM policy by hand for every request, because it is far too difficult to find an existing role in the system, and requests must the narrowly tailored only to allow the exact operation requested. Opal makes this process much more difficult because it lacks basic functionality for end users, such as: -Ability to modify an existing IAM role

-Ability to view existing IAM roles

-Ability to delete duplicate Opal roles

-Lack of IAM role templates

-Poor error messages when attempting JSON policy fails validation

In general, each Opal request takes 5-10 minutes because you need to be very explicit with every API action you are requesting, which then needs to be repeated multiple times because it is very hard to get everything correct the first time, which then requires a new round of reviews. This is partially because AWS IAM roles can be tricky to get right, but Opal provides no functionality to make this easier.

Incentivized

• Overall we had very good experience with Auth0. It supports industry standard language or technology for integration. Very good performance.
• It's nice to work with Auth0's APIs and they are flexible.
• The management and configuration dashboard is useful and easy to deal with.

Incentivized

• Auth0 can be somewhat limiting if you want a lot of control over the design of your authentication flow. Custom branding can be done, but it may be limited depending on how you plan to integrate.
• The Auth0 API documentation has proven confusing at times; a single API endpoint's behaviour will change based on inputs and configured settings (e.g. offline_access). Consequently fields that are advertised as being returned in a response might not be there or have different values if you miss a key detail and it can be difficult to debug when this happens. All information required is available in the documentation but requires some digging.
• The toggle to switch tenants feels a bit odd, it works, but I've had a few instances where I didn't realize I was on a staging tenant looking for something that was on the production tenant. Not a big deal, just something to watch out for.

Incentivized

• Inability to modify an IAM role after creation
• Inability to use templated IAM roles
• Inability to see existing IAM roles
• Inability for users to clean up existing Opal roles
• Poor ability to search for existing Opal roles
• Repeated reliability issues - IAM role creation breaks far too often
• Cryptic error messages when IAM JSON is incorrect

Incentivized

For our purposes, Auth0 is still one of the best valued RBAC platforms in the market.

Incentivized

Like in my case, it helps me build a better business by requiring authentication and better login features, as they are needed quickly. It helps me save time by not having to create it from scratch and provides better role-based login and access. One of my most helpful features is SSO (Single Sign On). If the user wants Microsoft-able SSO, Auth0 provides an all-in-one.

Incentivized

There isn't a clear method to get a hold of support when trouble arises if you're on their standard plan. You can file a support ticket and they generally are responsive. I've often been able to find similar questions to the questions I've had when it comes to support in their ticket history, however, some have been closed without a satisfactory conclusion for the original poster.

Incentivized

Auth0 is non-evasive and does not require software download. It is user friendly, seamless, and doesn't require additional actions on the part of the user. IBM Trusteer is none of these things and is based on a technology stack that cannot scale in the same way as Auth0. We believe Auth0 provides a superior solution and is well suited for our own technology stack.

Incentivized

• Development time has been allocated to the more core parts of our business.
• We are confident in the security of our user's accounts and their data.
• Auth0's login flows are customizable which means that we don't have to worry about users being confused when logging in/changing their passwords, and we didn't event have to spend that much time configuring this. (Full in-house development for login could take weeks to get right.)

Incentivized

• Decreased engineering productivity

Incentivized