SaaS Authentication & SSO

Clerk offers the best developer experience and built-in UI components — great for B2C SaaS moving fast. Auth0 has the deepest enterprise SSO support and compliance certifications — good for B2B enterprise. WorkOS is purpose-built for adding enterprise features (SSO, SCIM, Audit Logs) to an existing auth system. Custom auth gives maximum control but requires expertise to implement securely. We help you choose based on your go-to-market motion and security requirements.

Single Sign-On allows users to log in with their corporate identity provider (like Okta or Azure AD) instead of a separate username/password. You need SSO when selling to mid-market and enterprise customers — it is commonly a hard requirement in security questionnaires and procurement processes. Without SSO, you will lose deals. Budget to build it before you hit $1M ARR.

Start with a small set of well-defined roles (Owner, Admin, Member) and granular permissions rather than trying to model every edge case upfront. Enforce permissions at the API layer — never rely solely on UI hiding. Store permission checks in a central location (a permissions service or utility) so they can be audited. Add custom roles as a paid feature when enterprise customers request it.

Via SAML 2.0 or OIDC. The enterprise IT admin configures your app as a Service Provider in their identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, etc.), exchanges metadata, and maps user attributes. We build the self-serve SSO configuration flow so enterprise admins can connect their IdP without contacting your support team, using WorkOS or Auth0 as the SAML/OIDC broker.

We implement defence in depth: HTTPS everywhere, httpOnly secure cookies for session tokens, CSRF protection on state-changing endpoints, rate limiting on auth endpoints, account lockout after failed attempts, secure password reset flows with short-lived tokens, and regular token rotation. We also implement monitoring for anomalous login patterns and provide alerts for suspicious activity.