Has anyone used Stytch for Authentication?

[asuggulaa]

Curious what folks think of the product. We're re-implementing authentication and would like to use a 3rd party to take care of it. Okta seemed a bit cumbersome to use and you had little control over the user flow.

[mooreds]

(Disclosure, I work at FusionAuth, a Stytch competitor.)

Heya, glad you are taking a look around. There's lots of players offering solutions.

Here are some of the companies I see mentioned, along with my back of the envelope categorization of them; there is overlap and the categories are fuzzy, but hopefully that helps you pick and choose what to research. More info is only a google away.

OAuth/standards based solutions

* fusionauth

* auth0

* identity server/duende

Open source solutions

* ory

* keycloak

* zitadel

JavaScript focused solutions

* stytch

* propelauth

* clerk

* frontegg

* supertokens

Workforce oriented options:

* okta

* ping

* onelogin

* wso2

Hope this helps. Reach out if you'd like to chat more about FusionAuth. I'm not a co-founder (waves to Julianna) but I'm a long time employee.

Also, here are some community stories, based on interviews with folks who've used FusionAuth: https://fusionauth.io/blog/archive/category/community-story/

[gabrielsroka → mooreds]

Okta supports OAuth and other standards. Okta owns Auth0. Okta offers both customer and workforce solutions.

If you're going to write about the competition, at least be fair and accurate.

[mooreds → gabrielsroka]

I agree, Okta absolutely does support OAuth and other standards. As do Ping, wso2 and other workforce oriented solutions.

But Okta itself has focused on the workforce (IAM) product, rather than one focused on many users, which is why they bought Auth0, which they do own, as you correctly stated. If you go to okta.com, they have 'customer identity' and workforce identity' as the first two options of their menu. But my understanding is that 'customer identity' is really the Auth0 platform.

I did say:

> there is overlap and the categories are fuzzy

I didn't mean to imply that Okta didn't support standards. However, standards implementation isn't (in my mind) their defining characteristic, IAM/workforce management is. Just like some of the JS focused providers support OAuth, but the defining characteristic is their focus on JS/front end frameworks.

I'll end by saying that I haven't done a deep dive into all of these options, these are just some of the companies in the space. Caveat emptor, do your own diligence.

(From your profile link, I see that you are an Okta employee. I'd love to have your insight into how you'd group the competitors to help OP do their research to find the right solution.)

[gabrielsroka → mooreds]

I am not an Okta employee.

Okta had a customer identity solution even before they bought Auth0.

I know almost nothing about Okta's competitors, which is why I said nothing.

[mooreds → gabrielsroka]

Sorry, I was referencing the resume available on your GH site, but to be fair, it does say that it was last updated in 2018. My bad.

> Okta had a customer identity solution even before they bought Auth0.

Correct. Stormpath was acquired in the mid 2010s, if I recall correctly. I believe that is being sunsetted for Auth0 currently (based on my research).

[gabrielsroka → mooreds]

That's not what I'm talking about. I don't think the Stormpath product was ever turned into anything that Okta sold. But Okta's identity cloud has been used for both workforce and customer identity solutions. I believe it is the latter that is being sunsetted and replaced by Auth0.

[brokenwren → gabrielsroka]

Generally, the HN community prefers if you announce the company you are with. It helps ensure transparency in the communications.

I’m the founder of FusionAuth and have deep knowledge on OAuth and SAML. The groupings Dan used seem like a decent assessment with some caveats.

[gabrielsroka → brokenwren]

I'm not with any company.

> caveats

And I'm pointing those out.

[brokenwren → gabrielsroka]

I missed that you left Okta back in 2022, so pardon asking for a disclosure. In any case, I think your last sentence was the part that seemed a bit defensive. Dan was pretty clear that his assessment had overlap and things get fuzzy. Of course, YMMV.

[jelambs]

hi! co-founder/cto here at Stytch, would love to help you get up and running with Stytch! If you have any feedback as well, would be awesome to hear it. If there are specific questions/use cases you're exploring, can share some customer stories that speak to those use cases. Feel free to shoot me a note, I'm julianna at stytch.com.