Stop confusing SSO and Federated Identity. A technical guide for developers on concepts, protocols, and identity architectures.

Auth0's platform is a  identity management solution, offering insights into authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile applications. Through articles, tutorials, and documentation, Auth0 offers insights into securing applications with modern identity protocols like OAuth and OpenID Connect. Developers can learn about implementing single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and user authorization policies to enhance application security and user experience.

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Single Sign-On (SSO) is a user experience where one authentication grants access to multiple applications, while Federated Identity is the architectural framework enabling SSO across different security domains or organizations. SSO can exist without federation (like Kerberos on a local network), and federation can exist without SSO (requiring re-authentication each time). Modern federated systems use protocols like SAML and OpenID Connect to establish cryptographic trust between identity providers and applications. The key distinction matters for system design: centralized SSO within one organization is simpler to manage, while federated identity across organizations requires explicit trust relationships and makes challenges like global logout significantly harder.

Federated Identity vs. Single Sign-On: Key Differences

SSO vs. Federated Identity: Key Takeaways