Amazon Cognito vs Auth0

Updated October 2026 · AppBreakup editorial

Amazon Cognito

AWS's managed user directory and sign-in service for web and mobile apps.

Free plan + paid

Visit Amazon Cognito Amazon Cognito profile

Auth0

Okta's developer-focused identity platform for adding login, SSO and user management to apps.

Free plan + paid

Visit Auth0 Auth0 profile

The short answer

Pick Amazon Cognito if you build on AWS and want low-cost sign-in tightly tied to Lambda, API Gateway and Amplify. Pick Auth0 if you want a smoother developer experience, SDKs for almost every stack and flexible login customisation. The biggest difference is cost versus convenience: Cognito is cheap at scale but awkward to work with and hard to leave, while Auth0 is polished but expensive once B2B features are needed.

Amazon Cognito or Auth0: our take

Cognito offers user pools for sign-up and sign-in and identity pools that exchange logins for temporary AWS credentials, which is useful if users need direct access to AWS resources. It supports passwords, social providers, SAML and OIDC federation, MFA, and passkeys and passwordless codes on newer tiers through Managed Login. Lambda triggers handle custom logic. Auth0 provides Universal Login or embedded SDKs for passwords, social, passwordless, MFA and enterprise SSO, with Actions for custom JavaScript in login flows and B2B features like organisations, self-service SSO and SCIM. Auth0's documentation and quickstarts are widely praised; Cognito's developer experience and docs are often described as clunky, and its hosted pages are harder to customise.

Cognito's free tier covers 10,000 MAU per month, and user pools come in Lite, Essentials and Plus tiers, with Plus adding threat protection. Federated users cost $0.015 per MAU above 50 free. Auth0's free plan covers up to 25,000 monthly active users, and Essentials starts from $35/month, with sharp rises for enterprise features. An important practical difference is lock-in: Cognito does not let you export password hashes, so moving users elsewhere later is difficult.

If your stack already lives on AWS and cost per user matters most, Cognito is a sensible default and integrates with little glue code. If your team values speed of setup, customisation and portability, or does not use AWS heavily, Auth0 will usually be easier to live with. Whichever you pick, plan a user migration strategy early, especially with Cognito.

Choose Amazon Cognito if…

Teams building on AWS that want cheap, integrated user sign-in
You need iOS and Android, which Auth0 doesn't list
Low per-user cost with a free tier
Tight integration with API Gateway, Lambda and Amplify

Choose Auth0 if…

Product teams that want a mature hosted login with SDKs for almost every stack
SDKs and quickstarts for nearly every language and framework
Actions allow custom logic in login and sign-up flows

What is Amazon Cognito?

Amazon Cognito provides user pools for sign-up and sign-in, plus identity pools that exchange logins for temporary AWS credentials. It supports passwords, social providers, SAML and OIDC federation, MFA and, on newer tiers, passkeys and passwordless email or SMS codes through its Managed Login pages. User pools now come in three tiers, Lite, Essentials and Plus, with Plus adding threat protection such as compromised-credential detection. Its main appeal is integration with the rest of AWS: API Gateway, AppSync, Lambda triggers for custom logic and Amplify libraries for front ends. Pricing is per monthly active user with a free tier, which can be very cheap at scale compared with dedicated auth vendors. The trade-offs are a developer experience many find awkward, limited customisation of hosted pages, and the difficulty of migrating users out later because password hashes cannot be exported.

What is Auth0?

Auth0 is a hosted customer identity service: you redirect users to its Universal Login page or embed its SDKs, and it handles passwords, social logins, passwordless, multi-factor authentication, enterprise SSO and user storage. It has been part of Okta since 2021 and is one of the most widely used auth services, so SDKs, quickstarts and community answers exist for nearly every language and framework. Actions let you run custom JavaScript during login and sign-up flows, and the B2B plans add organisations, self-service SSO and SCIM. The free plan is generous for consumer apps, but paid plans are priced by monthly active users and the jump to enterprise features like advanced MFA or many SSO connections can be steep. It runs only as a cloud service, with optional private cloud deployments for large customers. Teams usually pick it when they want a mature, well-documented option and are comfortable with usage-based pricing.

Side by side

Attribute	Amazon Cognito	Auth0
Pricing	Free plan + paid	Free plan + paid
Open source	No	No
Self-hostable	No	No
Platforms	Web, iOS, Android	Web
Best for	Teams building on AWS that want cheap, integrated user sign-in	Product teams that want a mature hosted login with SDKs for almost every stack
Status	Active	Active